Lasted 82 years so far
August 6, 2010 (Friday)
Many of my friends have been telling me I need to get a new car, because mine is nearly 16 years old. I thought I had been driving it a long time until I read about Allen Swift, who drove his car 82 years. His father gave the car to him as a graduation gift in 1928. When he died last year, at age 102, he donated the car, a Rolls-Royce, to a museum in his home town (Springfield, Massachusetts). Click here to read John De Lorenzo’s blog about it, and see a picture of the car, in perfect condition.
My stepfather bought a brand new 1949 Packard automobile to replace his old 1938 Plymouth. What a step upwards he took. The whole family was very proud of that car. The brand was known for quality workmanship. “Ask the man who owns one” was their slogan. But even the Packard did not compare to the Rolls-Royce, which has always been handmade. They range in price today from $250,000 to $450,000, and much more if you want more custom features. I recall reading of an Arab king whose throne was built into his. I wonder what that one cost?
In spite of the good service and excellent comfort of my present automobile, I keep thinking about replacing it. That new car fever, however, is not as bad in this soon-to-be 79-year-old as it was in 1959, when he got his first new car. It was a 1959 Chevrolet, equipped with wings that made it want to lift off when he stopped for red lights in downtown Dallas, as the wind whipped through those skyscraper canyons.
When I think of good old cars, I think of the one owned by Olin Waldrip, my pastor in 1950 at Groesbeck. He named it, “Belshazzar,” because the Bible says, “the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against the other.”