Jar of Questions - Part 4
What was your first car?
My first car was a Model A Ford Coupe. I was working delivering papers for the Ariz Republic each morning on my bicycle and I was going up after my papers to deliver when I spotted this car at a car lot on Main Street for $100.00 and after getting the papers and delivering them I went back and bought it. I wasn't 16 yet but had somebody else drive it home and when ever it went out of the place someone else was driveing but I wasn't, usually it was Pearl. But I enjoyed fixing it up and driving it around the yard. I painted it black with a brush - my first paint job. I later sold it and bought a 1934 Dodge Coupe and thats the one I drove when I got my licence and even used it to deliver papers with, and drove it to the old Mesa High School. My friends always said they knew when I had extra gas in the car because I would circle the school a extra time or so. When it was about empty I would just drive up to school and park it out front until I started takeing auto mechanics at school then I would park near the class room and we would use my 34 Dodge to push some of the other cars that refused to start after my class mates had worked on them. My car had high bumper guards on the bumper so it was a good pusher. Then I had a 41 Ford coupe and I had spiner hub caps on the front wheels and skirts on the rear fenders and I put a couple sacks of cement in the trunk to lower the back end and it was shiny black and so I was right in stile with the rest of the kids at school. I started working at T+S Motors, the Studebaker dealer during my last year at school and so I then traded the 44 Ford for a 1947 Studebaker Club Coupe with all the glass around the back. I let Pat Buckley drive and she wrecked it and put us in the ditch on Base Line Road after side swiping a Cadilac after a car slowed and turned that was in front of us one Sunday afternoon. We both came out of that OK but I had a scrape in my eye brow. My boss at T+S then sold me a brand new 59 Studebaker Champion 4 Door but I had to go to South Bend, Indiana to get it so Lee and Vona and Vona's sister Doris all of us went to South Bend in Lee's 46 Ply 2 Door and I got my 1st brand new car. Lee drove another one back for the company (T+S) so we had that to pay for part of the trip there and back. We left Lees car there and the other new car there at the motel in South Bend and all of us drove my car on up to see Niagara Falls and over into Canada and then back to South Bend and picked up the other 2 cars and headed home. Some guy banged into the back of my car at a stop lite on the way home and put a dent in the trunk lid but it wasn't too bad. We fixed it at the body shop and repaired the trunk lid when we got back. It was a good trip and great to see Canada and the falls. Vona's sister Dora was along for the trip and for some company for me I guess. But she was as bashful as I was so I don't think we spoke more then 2 dozen words to each other the whole trip. She was and is a very nice person as I appreciate Lee and Vona for what they've ment to me. There both very very special. I kept the new 49 Studebaker for awhile then got drafted into the Army and went to California for the induction then Aberdeen, Maryland for training then Atlanta, Georgia for mechanic training and then shipped to Japan for poison gas training and then to Korea for the 13 months of work there. When I came back home in June of 1953 I took the car out of storage in the garage at home and went back to work for the Studebaker dealer (T+S Motors). Later they took a 1950 Studebaker Landcruiser in trade with automatic trans. and I traded for that. I really liked it and thats the car I had when Joan and I got married June 8 of 1956. We later got a 1957 Olds 88 2 Door and then when the kids started coming along we bought a 1959 Chevy Station Wagon which we liked. We got our motor home about that time a 65 Dodge 27 foot Travco and that made camping a joy with that. We got a 74 Chevy suburan 4x4 wheel drive and that was great also. We enjoyed it. I remember the kids taking it up and getting it stuck in a wash one Sunday while I was in Stake Priesthood Meeting and I was called out of the meeting to go pull them out with the wrecker. I believe it was Emily and Wayne that was useing it if my memories right. The wash had running water in it. We still have the suburban today (sold it in 2003). Later Joan bought a 83 Ford van with captain seats and a bed in the back and she used this in her business with Paint + Things on the sides and back and she loves her van and enjoys it to the fullest - taking many trips in it. The Travco motor home we gave to Wayne when he graduated from college sense he and Phylis paid for his cost of going to college and we had 2 motor homes at his graduation time. We had bought a really nice 1976 32 ft Vogue motor home and we loved it. We'd pulled the little 48 Willys Jeep behind the Travco and now we pulled it behind the Vogue and also had a jeep trailer with a portapottie on it that we could use for church and family outings. It seems like everything we get or buy we take in consideration our church and family callings and needs. The ward was paying 75 to 150 each time we had a ward outting to rent a portapottie single or double and so I bought a damaged one for $100.00 and fixed it up and mounted on our Jeep trailer so we saved the ward about $300 each year in pottie fees and we still use the trailer for ourself - even haul hay and other things on it.
Being in the scouts it seems all my life we even had a string of bus's we bought and fixed up to transport the boys + ward members. The 4th Ward had bought a old International bread wagon van that we used and I drove to the North Rim of Grand Canyon with our explorer scouts and hiked down + up to the south rim (Stan Burnham was with us). But the van was 2 small so I bought a 46 Dodge bus from 1st Ward and Cal Milyard helped fix that up and we drove it to Salt Lake City to a explorer scout get together. We kept it for a few yrs and then got a 55 Ford bus from Joans dad. He had a car lot and that bus would really go - but we had so many boys so I bought a 56 Ford bus and it would carry 40 boys and sleeping bags etc. We made racks inside up above the seats and painted it inside + out. It looked good and our scouts + ward members had a lot of good outtings in that bus - California - Mexico - Utah - etc. We finally sold it when the church cut our size down in our explorer groups.
We had at least 40 boys but they made the program fit 2 groups Venturers + Explorers and so finally we went with the program and I started using the 74 suburban to carry the venturers that I had as Teachers Quorum Advisor. We made at least 4 or 5 trips to Salt Lake with the boys and partisapated in the All Church Explorado and we took 1st place for 3 yrs and came home with the All Church Award. We should of had it 1 other yr but the paper work got messed up and lost. We particapated enyway. Later our last car we got was a 85 Bronco that David towed in from Beeline and the Verde River that rolled over and wrecked. We got that from David and had it fixed up by Mesa Auto Body and then by us. Put a tow bar on it and it makes a nice towing vehicle behind our motor home that your mother Joan + I can enjoy with heater and air condition and out of the rain and I use it for my going to church vehicle most of the time. But the kids and myself we still enjoy the rides in the old 48 Willy Jeep out in the open with the windshield down and all the ward kids love it too at ward outtings, family outting, father daughter, and father son plus using it at scout camporees. Everyone can't emagine the Jeep is a lot older then they are.
My first car was a Model A Ford Coupe. I was working delivering papers for the Ariz Republic each morning on my bicycle and I was going up after my papers to deliver when I spotted this car at a car lot on Main Street for $100.00 and after getting the papers and delivering them I went back and bought it. I wasn't 16 yet but had somebody else drive it home and when ever it went out of the place someone else was driveing but I wasn't, usually it was Pearl. But I enjoyed fixing it up and driving it around the yard. I painted it black with a brush - my first paint job. I later sold it and bought a 1934 Dodge Coupe and thats the one I drove when I got my licence and even used it to deliver papers with, and drove it to the old Mesa High School. My friends always said they knew when I had extra gas in the car because I would circle the school a extra time or so. When it was about empty I would just drive up to school and park it out front until I started takeing auto mechanics at school then I would park near the class room and we would use my 34 Dodge to push some of the other cars that refused to start after my class mates had worked on them. My car had high bumper guards on the bumper so it was a good pusher. Then I had a 41 Ford coupe and I had spiner hub caps on the front wheels and skirts on the rear fenders and I put a couple sacks of cement in the trunk to lower the back end and it was shiny black and so I was right in stile with the rest of the kids at school. I started working at T+S Motors, the Studebaker dealer during my last year at school and so I then traded the 44 Ford for a 1947 Studebaker Club Coupe with all the glass around the back. I let Pat Buckley drive and she wrecked it and put us in the ditch on Base Line Road after side swiping a Cadilac after a car slowed and turned that was in front of us one Sunday afternoon. We both came out of that OK but I had a scrape in my eye brow. My boss at T+S then sold me a brand new 59 Studebaker Champion 4 Door but I had to go to South Bend, Indiana to get it so Lee and Vona and Vona's sister Doris all of us went to South Bend in Lee's 46 Ply 2 Door and I got my 1st brand new car. Lee drove another one back for the company (T+S) so we had that to pay for part of the trip there and back. We left Lees car there and the other new car there at the motel in South Bend and all of us drove my car on up to see Niagara Falls and over into Canada and then back to South Bend and picked up the other 2 cars and headed home. Some guy banged into the back of my car at a stop lite on the way home and put a dent in the trunk lid but it wasn't too bad. We fixed it at the body shop and repaired the trunk lid when we got back. It was a good trip and great to see Canada and the falls. Vona's sister Dora was along for the trip and for some company for me I guess. But she was as bashful as I was so I don't think we spoke more then 2 dozen words to each other the whole trip. She was and is a very nice person as I appreciate Lee and Vona for what they've ment to me. There both very very special. I kept the new 49 Studebaker for awhile then got drafted into the Army and went to California for the induction then Aberdeen, Maryland for training then Atlanta, Georgia for mechanic training and then shipped to Japan for poison gas training and then to Korea for the 13 months of work there. When I came back home in June of 1953 I took the car out of storage in the garage at home and went back to work for the Studebaker dealer (T+S Motors). Later they took a 1950 Studebaker Landcruiser in trade with automatic trans. and I traded for that. I really liked it and thats the car I had when Joan and I got married June 8 of 1956. We later got a 1957 Olds 88 2 Door and then when the kids started coming along we bought a 1959 Chevy Station Wagon which we liked. We got our motor home about that time a 65 Dodge 27 foot Travco and that made camping a joy with that. We got a 74 Chevy suburan 4x4 wheel drive and that was great also. We enjoyed it. I remember the kids taking it up and getting it stuck in a wash one Sunday while I was in Stake Priesthood Meeting and I was called out of the meeting to go pull them out with the wrecker. I believe it was Emily and Wayne that was useing it if my memories right. The wash had running water in it. We still have the suburban today (sold it in 2003). Later Joan bought a 83 Ford van with captain seats and a bed in the back and she used this in her business with Paint + Things on the sides and back and she loves her van and enjoys it to the fullest - taking many trips in it. The Travco motor home we gave to Wayne when he graduated from college sense he and Phylis paid for his cost of going to college and we had 2 motor homes at his graduation time. We had bought a really nice 1976 32 ft Vogue motor home and we loved it. We'd pulled the little 48 Willys Jeep behind the Travco and now we pulled it behind the Vogue and also had a jeep trailer with a portapottie on it that we could use for church and family outings. It seems like everything we get or buy we take in consideration our church and family callings and needs. The ward was paying 75 to 150 each time we had a ward outting to rent a portapottie single or double and so I bought a damaged one for $100.00 and fixed it up and mounted on our Jeep trailer so we saved the ward about $300 each year in pottie fees and we still use the trailer for ourself - even haul hay and other things on it.
Being in the scouts it seems all my life we even had a string of bus's we bought and fixed up to transport the boys + ward members. The 4th Ward had bought a old International bread wagon van that we used and I drove to the North Rim of Grand Canyon with our explorer scouts and hiked down + up to the south rim (Stan Burnham was with us). But the van was 2 small so I bought a 46 Dodge bus from 1st Ward and Cal Milyard helped fix that up and we drove it to Salt Lake City to a explorer scout get together. We kept it for a few yrs and then got a 55 Ford bus from Joans dad. He had a car lot and that bus would really go - but we had so many boys so I bought a 56 Ford bus and it would carry 40 boys and sleeping bags etc. We made racks inside up above the seats and painted it inside + out. It looked good and our scouts + ward members had a lot of good outtings in that bus - California - Mexico - Utah - etc. We finally sold it when the church cut our size down in our explorer groups.
We had at least 40 boys but they made the program fit 2 groups Venturers + Explorers and so finally we went with the program and I started using the 74 suburban to carry the venturers that I had as Teachers Quorum Advisor. We made at least 4 or 5 trips to Salt Lake with the boys and partisapated in the All Church Explorado and we took 1st place for 3 yrs and came home with the All Church Award. We should of had it 1 other yr but the paper work got messed up and lost. We particapated enyway. Later our last car we got was a 85 Bronco that David towed in from Beeline and the Verde River that rolled over and wrecked. We got that from David and had it fixed up by Mesa Auto Body and then by us. Put a tow bar on it and it makes a nice towing vehicle behind our motor home that your mother Joan + I can enjoy with heater and air condition and out of the rain and I use it for my going to church vehicle most of the time. But the kids and myself we still enjoy the rides in the old 48 Willy Jeep out in the open with the windshield down and all the ward kids love it too at ward outtings, family outting, father daughter, and father son plus using it at scout camporees. Everyone can't emagine the Jeep is a lot older then they are.
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