WELCOME TO OLD CARS

This blog is all about my fascination with old cars.  I especially like to roam the back roads with my camera in search of derelicts and  carcasses of once wonderful old cars. Frequently, I can’t identify them, but they are no less wonderful.  The site will be updated frequently, so come back often.

1931 Ford (?)

1941 Dodge (?)

It is my hope visitors will offer pictures and stories of their own old cars (No Muscle Cars, Please) and contact me in the comments section so I can respond with download instructions.

To see Show and Shine images from Southern Oregon events and slide shows, go to Old Cars Never Die.

A wise friend told me I should mention my real job as a job search coach for executives and technology professionals.  If you want to learn more, go to my site Job Search Debugged.

THE CREW’S CARS FROM ‘50 CHEVY TO SHRIKE 3 WHEELER

The “Crew” started as the “Three M’s” in Junior High School, 1950’s Garden Grove California; a time and place now only written about by baby-boomers or seen in very bad nostalgia movies. Massaro, Metzker and Mladnich who committed to straight A’s and friendship spent most of their free time together. In high school, Rancho Alamitos,  the group expanded to 7 members and was renamed by the Chem teacher as, “The Crew.” 

Rancho 1960

The boys sat together on the lawn at lunch, occasionally honoring new girl friends with an invitation to join them under the shade tree they appropriated as their own, but mostly the Crew just riffed off each other’s puns and inside jokes. Their laughter blanketed the side lawn of Rancho  and their mischief became the stuff of legends.

One spring day those arriving to school early were perplexed by all the “For Sale” signs scattered on the various front lawns. And through the morning the Admin staff fielded strange phone inquiries about the mansion with 105 rooms, fifteen bathrooms, basketball courts and 20 tennis courts. Seems the crew had placed a Real Estate advertisement (billed to the school) in the local paper and put the school up for sale.

Mischief aside, the Crew studied together, competed for grades and sometimes, fished together. Once I was invited to join Massaro and Metzker on an early morning fishing expedition. Turns out I was the only one who caught anything but Massaro was chivalrous and cleaned it, fried it up in a hot buttered pan he brought for the occasion and we all shared it. Strangely, at a recent reunion, neither Massaro nor Metzker remembered the outing. Massaro’s first car was our ride: A 1950 Chevy Convertible, yellow and very clean.

  

Over the years, the boys became men, went their separate ways and mostly lost contact until three years ago when Davie Norton, decided a reunion was in order. Since I had written an article memorizlizing the Crew for our School Newspaper, I was invited to join them in a Southern California beach front condo to revisit the past.

I jumped at the chance and was rewarded by the understanding that each of the Crew members had become older versions of themselves. One of the competitive topics was who had the highest mileage car. Midrange was 250,000 miles and the winner, whom I believe was Davie Norton (Nort), was over 350,000.

But Nort was a real car fanatic. He used his curiosity, creativity and perversity to create a three wheeled energy efficient vehicle; the Shrike.

Shrike 3 Wheeler

And later, with a new, more efficient engine: 

David Norton

Performance:
Lateral G: 1.0 at low speeds (40 mph), Braking G: 1.0, 0-60: 6.4 sec, 1/4 mile: 14.6 sec @ 97.6 mph, Top Speed: I have no idea (something over 120 mph. It’s still accelerating at over .2 G at 80 mph). Fuel consumption: 30 (kick-gas) to 40 (very relaxing) mpg.

These days, Massaro Drives a Hybrid and today, as I await a visit from his soon-to-be-advocacy lawyer daughter, I keep an outlook for her in her Blue Honda Hybrid which she truly loves.

Check back here periodically for more about the Crew and their Automotive history…a reflection of America’s own fascination with cars, I am sure.