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Happy Holiday's to All. It has been another great year of Cruising here in Central Florida, No Cruise-In tonight or next week. See you all Next year on January 3rd, 2008 for our 8th year in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

I will share a story about "The Gift" I received from friends many years ago.

A long time ago, in a Galaxie, far, far away. O.K. So it was the '70's , it was a Galaxie 500 XL convertible and it was only as far away as Wisconsin. Apologies once again to Mr. Lucas. It was the middle of December in 1972, I was out on my route, at the time I was an outside salesman for a Goodyear Service Center with accounts all over the state. Anyway I pulled into a car lot in Kewaskum with a load of Snow tires in my van and there it was. A 1965 Galaxie 500XL ragtop. Virtually the top wasn't much more than a rag. It had just been taken in in trade. After I brushed the snow out of the inside and took a look at the almost perfect interior I noticed that there was a console but the shifter was on the column. "Ford-O-Matic" was on the selector readout. I opened the hood and noticed a large hole in the side of the 300CID straight 6 engine. I just had to have it.

After all a hard working guy with a wife and 2 young daughters had to have something to take them to the beach in next summer, we sort of outgrew the new "Hemi" powered Challenger, with all the extra stuff needed to haul around the little ones. I called the wife to tell her of my find, she wasn't too eager for me to purchase it but I just had to have it. After a little convincing on my part I put a deposit on it, $10 and made arrangements to have it brought to the "Shop" back in Fond du Lac.

On the drive back to the "Shop", my long day on the road was nearly over, it was just after 5:00 I headed out on the 30 or so mile trip. The snow kept falling, the wind picked up and it was very slow going. The 30 minute trip took me nearly 4 1/2 hours to complete. More than a foot of snow had accumulated on the ground. At least it gave me time to plan my next few steps to get the New Car on the road. My buddy Jim had a very nice running 64 Galaxie convertible with a 390 4 Speed in it. He had some title problems with it and offered it to me for $150. This car was probably in better condition than the one I had just bought for $90, including the tow to the "Shop" but I liked the '65 style. I was going to put some Cragar S/S wheels on it. Some Polyglass GT white letter tires. It was going to be great. I had also remembered that the bone yard just down the street from the shop had a '65 in the front lot that was totaled but it had a new top on it. I hoped that it hadn't been cut up yet.

It wouldn't be until Christmas Eve day that the car would make it to the "Shop". Jim & I had already taken the engine and transmission out of the '64 and had it waiting for the "Transplant". We then traded the carcass of the '64 to the bone yard for $45 and that Top I had been looking at. Working in a facility like this was great, 8 bays, 6 Hoists and an alignment pit, both Jim and I had keys and were allowed to come in on our off time to work on our own projects. Needless to say not very much work would get done during the Holiday's.

Our Center was open from 7:30 to 5:30 Monday thru Thursday, 7:30 to 9:00 on Friday's and 8:00 to Noon on Saturday, Closed Sunday's. However, with the big Holiday's falling on Sunday that year we closed at 4:00 The Friday before Christmas Eve and wouldn't reopen until the following Tuesday. With the trips to our Folks homes on Saturday, some 100 miles to the West in Tomah and Sparta and the weatherman calling for Snow Storms it now looked like I wouldn't have it on the road until later in 1973.

The “New Years Eve” party for the Shop started at Noon on December 31st. All of the crew, their wives, kids and other family members along with any of our regular customers assembled in the Showroom for an evening of Mirth & Merriment. My ‘65 was in the “Utility Bay” with the new 390 and the 4 speed laying next to it on pallets. The plan was to work on it over the weekend, Again it was a long weekend. The Boss, Dave, was going to head to Northern Wisconsin in the morning, So we were closed until January 3rd. By 7:00PM or so we all had had a day of Food, Drink and Friends. Judy, the better half at the time, was about to head for the house and take the girls home and relax when Dave’s wife broke out some “Kids games”, there were about a dozen or so little ones from the age of 10 months to 8 years old. The Customer lounge was set up with playpens for the kids and there were several sofas and chairs in it. You guessed it, the “Guys” had but a few choices for the evening. It was to Drink more and continue to Shoot the Bull or to get that power train into the old convertible awaiting the transplant. Besides it was New Years Eve and we needed to see 1973 arrive. What I hadn’t realized was that all week after Christmas these “Guys” had planned this little “Work Party”. Next thing I knew they all went into the locker room and came out in their work clothes. Even the “Regulars” like Chuck, Don and Jim's bother “Suited Up”. Jim said “We need to have this tub on the road by Midnight, I want to run it down Johnson Street at a minute after!”. Dave went into the “Mag Room” and brought out a set of Rocket 5 Spoke wheels, he then instructed Doug to get a set of F60X15 Polygalss GT tires to put on them. Jim, his bother John and I started to put the engine into the cavity that was occupied by the old 300 6 cylinder. Amazing, Jim had a new set of motor mounts in his tool box and the big block was bolted in. While we were putting the front suspension back together it was decided to replace all of the moving parts. It was cool that we happened to be the area distributor for Moog front end parts. We had it all in stock. So a new pitman arm, idler arm, drag link and tie rod ends were put into place. Earlier in the week, Jim had replaced the upper and lower ball joints and front springs. When Brian came over to start bending the pipes for the “Turbo” exhaust. I replaced the rear shocks. Then Jim said, “This thing needs brakes.” “Wait a minute” I shouted, “I thought we wanted to be done by midnight”. Jim said don’t worry we will be”. This was about 9:30, everything we wanted to do, plus a few other things were underway. The Shop was as busy as any work day, but tonight it was all for my car. WOW!, this was so cool of my friends to chip in.

The biggest problem we had during the night was putting that sloppy stock shifter through the floor so that it would match up with the console and the Top wasn't ready to go on quite yet. Just 2 hours later Jim opened the bay door and fired the engine up. We had the old Ford running in 1972! Amazing, all of the work was done, except for the top. Time to spare. We all went into the lounge and most of the kids were sleeping and the ladies were playing cards and having a good time. Off to the locker room for a cleanup and a change back into our “Party” clothes. Dave broke out the champagne and we all would “Toast” the New Year in. Jim hurried into the shop area and backed the Convertible out and headed down Johnson Street, no top with the Snow falling, those big flakes, the temperature at about 6 degrees below zero, right at 12:01, January 1st, 1973.

As you can imagine, this was a special night with good friends. Dave added the parts bill up, however the Mag Wheels were a gift, much to my surprise, he then put it in an account that I would pay off during my tenure at the Tire Center.

Later on New Years day I would come back and clean the shop, put the top on the car and drive it home. Somehow that day’s hang over never came. These memories will always be with me. The old Ford would go through a few more engine changes before I would get rid of it a number of years later. The Challenger would be traded later in 1973 for an AMC Ambassador wagon. This marked the end of my MOPAR muscle cars. The wife needed a car that would carry the kids and all of the other things needed for a growing family.

This was the best gift a being could get, it wasn’t just getting work done on a car, this was Friendship, the real wealth of a person.

Thank you for taking this trip down memory lane with me. It was a pretty special time. I hope you enjoyed reading it, I sure enjoyed remembering it.
 

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