I've done something I rarely do. Took some time off work. I ditched work early Saturday, we were closed yesterday as we do every Sunday, and then called in and took today off as well. I enjoyed the hell out of it. I don't take near as much time off as I could or should, I'm just not that way. But my manager has said to me several times lately that I need to take some time off and I guess he's right, even I need some downtime.
So what did I do with that time? Had some company over and cooked a couple of truly excellent dinners. Watched some movies. (avoid Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle like the plague! Watching this movie will give you SARS and cause you to wish for either a quick death or want to go spend a couple of hours in a Kingdom Hall to get the awful memories of that excruciatingly rancid movie out of your mind)
But this evening I took a friend on a trip down memory lane. I drove her to Columbus (in southwest Georgia) from Macon (right smack dab in the middle) and back, she was moving her stuff out of her mom and dad's house. Now in between Columbus and Macon lies the little slice of rural paradise where your old buddy Bendrr grew up. So on the way home I took a slight detour and drove her out to the old homeplace where I grew up, living in a trailer with woods on three sides and a dirt road on the fourth. The trailer isn't there anymore, and neither is the old 1800's era house I grew up living next to and playing in. But at least I showed her where I lived and how quiet and peaceful it was and is, something I so often miss living in downtown Macon as I do now.
Then when we got home and I checked my email, the flashback started all over again. I'm in a Yahoo group for model cars. One of this evening's posts was a model of a Ford Falcon, painted silver with a white top. And boy did that bring back a memory!
When my stepdad was dating my mom, he drove a Ford Falcon. I want to say it was a '62. He'd bought it for $25 and drove it home. Our neighbors had a garage and paint shop, so he used the facilities to put some work into his $25 car. Did a nice job too, including the paint job. He painted it gold metal flake. Ok, it looked good at the time but remember that it was the early 70's. Then one night he was driving home down the dirt road we lived on and WHAM!!! hit a deer. Busted up the grille and demolished the hood.
Luckily, he found replacement parts at a neighbor's house only a few miles away. The grille went in with no problems. Technically so did the hood. Technically. Thing is, the color didn't match. It was a white hood and the car was 70's gold metal flake. Daddy never did get around to re-painting the replacement hood to match. He just drove the car a couple more years and then sold it. The buyers didn't have a problem with the white hood. They kept it just like it was.
Fast forward to '87 or '88. I was driving through our old home town of Fort Valley when what should pass me but a gold '62 Ford Falcon. It had mag wheels and was jacked up in the back, but it had that unique white hood. They'd never gotten around to painting the hood either. I don't know, maybe they liked it. Who am I to judge?
When I got home I told mom and dad about it and we all had a good laugh. But it doesn't end there. A few years after that, I want to say '91, I was just out driving and killing some time and decided to go ride down the old dirt roads of my childhood home. Down one of them, in front of an old mobile home, yep you guessed it, sat a gold metal flake '62 Ford Falcon...........WITH THE SAME DAMN WHITE HOOD!!!!!!!
My friend Pat was over this evening when I pulled up the Yahoo model car group email with the picture of the Falcon model. I showed her the picture and then told her the story of dad's $25 Falcon with the white hood. I told her that I'd be willing to bet a week's paycheck that I could drive out there to the old dirt roads and probably find the old girl behind someone's house down in the weeds, maybe a little faded and rusty but undoubtedly still sporting that same damn white hood!!!
I think I may actually do just that. Go looking for the old Falcon. I know where to look, I may even stop at a few places and ask some questions. Those folks back up in there are some pretty nice people. When I showed Pat my old homeplace this evening, we pulled up in the yard and sat there for a few minutes. My car's headlights attracted the attention of the guy living there and he came out to see what was going on. I got out of the car and talked to him, explained who I was and why I was there. He was the son-in-law of the man who'd bought our trailer when we moved away from there. Small world huh?
Like I said, I'm willing to bet I'll find the Falcon, white hood and all. I'll take my digital camera in case my quest is successful. I may just go ahead and buy her if I do find her. If I do, I'll have her towed late one night to my parents' house and drop her in their driveway. I know they'll get a kick out of that!
Mike.