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For the love of Lucy (a car story) |
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Written by Submitted to the World
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Monday, 03 July 2006 |
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 Like all kids, I grew up dreaming of my first car that didn’t come until I was 20 years old. 1961, US Army, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, I bought my 1st 55 Chevy for $600.00. After leaving the service, I drove it back to Reno, keeping it for 4 years and selling it for $600.00, what a deal, didn’t loose a nickel. If we had only known. For the next 35 years, that Chevy haunted me.
In the early years of Hot August Nights, we would go look at the cars on occasion, not considering buying one until one December morning in 1995 when I spotted this 1955, red and beige Chevy convertible on a Reno car lot. All the memories came back and I immediately fell in love. I called my wife Tempe telling her of the car.
It had the 265 V-8, 4 bbl. Carb, dual exhaust, (WOW, a power pack, 180 hp) push button wonder bar radio, 2 speed power glide, how can you beat this? etc.. She said, that’s all you have been talking about for years and if you don’t buy it, you will be sorry. With the stroke of the pen, I owned the car. I owned my dream, became a HAN participant, and no more standing on the street and watching, WOW, I was in the drivers seat.
She needed a lot of work, but I thought I could put a few thousand dollars into her and have her done in a year. Oh yea, boy, did I get a rude awakening, and 7 years later, she was almost done.
At first, we were going to have a nice 350 dropped into her, a modern tranny, etc., but as time went on, we seen that almost everyone did this and we leaned toward keeping her stock. After all, we had a blue print to follow and it would be easier to restore her. I was wrong again.
If we modified her, you could do anything and be correct, keeping her stock proved to be a much harder road to follow. We have never been sorry taking the harder road.
We have been a participant in Hot August Nights since 1996 and became a member several years later. Lucy (this is our car’s name) is directly responsible allowing us to see so many beautiful cars and allowing us to meet so many wonderful people and when we became members of HAN, this only expanded it.
In 2000, we found out what a car show is and immediately became hooked. We attend a many shows each year as possible, usually one a week. Lucy has won numerous class awards and many Best of Shows. In 2005 she was lucky enough to win the HAN Champion Chevrolet Celebrity Award.
We also are involved with many community events for seniors, school homecomings, proms, driving Santa for Kruzin for Kids, giving under privilege children rides during Hot august Nights, driving Pat Morita with the past Play Boy Bunnies in the Nevada Day Parade in 2004, driving Governor Kenny Guinn and his family in the Nevada Day Parade in 2005. That was really an honor to drive the Governor. This year, Lucy was picked to be Bonanza Casinos Poster Car and their Hot August Night commemorative chip car. Now, that is truly a Great honor.
We drive Lucy to every car show and she is on the road from mid April through mid December every year. We love all the attention we get from everyone while driving and showing her, but most of all, we love all the new friends we make at every car show. Thank You Lucy for making our lives so much richer.
Thanks to Hot August Nights, All the car clubs and all the wonderful individuals for organizing the car shows that gives all us classic car owners the opportunity to show off our pride and joys.
Submitted photo
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Last Updated ( Monday, 03 July 2006 )
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