20 May 2012

1970 Coupe De Ville...gas hog for sale

My son is liquidating his former toys and hobbies. He has this 42 year old lead sled (w/o the 472 cubic inch motor) parked at my house while it runs on Craigslist for $1500.

It was red with a worn out white vinyl top. He, all by himself, did alot of body work, fixed a big gouge down the side of the car, had a body shop repair the rusted panel across the rear window trim, and did all prep work before having the body shop shoot the white paint on it. Turned out pretty nice.

It has air bag suspension he installed. Interior is all original but less, much less than "pristine".

We bought it for $900 when he turned 16 and he drove it a couple of months before it spun a bearing and seized up. He and my mechanically minded youngest brother pulled the motor and rebuilt it with a mild cam. My son also rebuilt the Turbo400 tranny (with a little help from a tranny shop on some parts) and put a mild shift kit in it.He also rebuilt the Quadra-bog carb and fine tuned it. Electronic ignition added and some other rocker arm upgrades, etc.

He made a few trips to CA and LV and other car shows in Mississippi, etc in that Caddy.

After that he found an old '68 Caddy Hearse rust bucket that only had 55K miles on it, and still ran and was drivable...but was a Kentucky car and was badly rusted underneath. He pulled the body off, rebuilt the frame and somehow re located the engine height so he could install air bags and drop the frame to the pavement and raise it up just enough to drive. Those old hearses all came with positrac rear ends, and after he swapped the rebuilt 472 from his white Coupe De Ville into the hearse, he could smoke the tires like nothing else...both of them. (kinda a waste of rubber....but real attention getter) He was in Austin with some buddies for a car show they have down there every summer, and was on Congress Ave downtown one night, and did a major tire burn to show off. The hearse had no floor in the back since he rebuilt with tubing the rear frame, and the car filled up with white rubber smoke. A cop tapped on the glass and as my son rolled the window down, a ton of white smoke drifted out. The nice policeman just sternly said "no more of that"....and walked away.

Long story here...so I'll wrap it up.

He's working for TAMU now, just turned 28 yrs old and  married and they are expecting baby #1 later this year. So he's selling all  his hobbies. But does have plans to  build a new rock crawler since he's sold most of his tricked out Suzuki Sammy, but the next crawler will have a Caddy engine and trans...with Ford Dana axles. He's a very skilled mechanic and can fix damn near anything. Nothing like me, hell I can barely change  my oil.

I had one of these same cars back in the late 80's...fun to drive and loads of power....but even when tuned perfectly best you could get was 10-12 mpg...but then again gas was 22 cents a gallon when this thing was new. When I was in school at TAMU in '75 I drove a pink and white 1959 Caddy Sedan with the huge tail fins. Years later I (1982) finally sold it to a Mexican homosexual dude for $2500 that owned a couple of restaurants in College Station and he planned to make a salad bar out of it, but ended up keeping it to drive.

I used to love Caddys....owned a bunch of 'em, but I like Lincoln Town Cars now.








18 May 2012

Mattie Lou: 3-4 January 1947


Friday—January 3
It’s bitterly cold today. Quite the coldest of the season. Planned to spend the day with Jo Beth, but decided it was too cold. Am chrocheting (sic) Jo a new doilie out of the new thread so am really enjoying myself. Buster is in a H.(not sure about the H) S. A. meeting today. He reported a very busy day at the office.

Saturday—January 4
It was unusually cold last nite. Kept the gas on all nite and windows were covered with ice this morn. Car was dead too. It was too cold to try to work at store so am at home. B. B. and Les are feeding cows at the farm. Lorena came over this morn for a visit. Ma died one year ago today.

Notes: Jo Beth is her daughter. Les is her son-in-law. Mattie usually works a few hours on Saturday at a store.

A&M Graduation

On May 11th my 'baby' Bruce graduated from Texas A&M with his bachelor's degree in psychology. I'm a proud mom. He will now join his brother (Ben) in Austin and attend culinary school to become a professional chef. (This from a kid who, for years, would ONLY eat hot dogs and mac and cheese. Go figure. You just never know . . ) He's in Las Vegas with some friends right now. Not to gamble, but rather to experience all the famous chefs' restaurants along the Strip.

Ben's latest project is playing the lead role in Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' which I think opens some time in June.

Above: Ben, Bruce, Me (the short one), and my mother.

17 May 2012

Mattie Lou Journal Entries--1947

Here are two entries from Mattie Lou's 1947 diary. She lived on a farm in Sulphur Springs, TX.  This is her first diary and I'll just start at the beginning. (B. B. and Buster are the same person--her husband). I've kept her misspellings, quirkiness, and grammar errors, etc. And I make notations when there is an unreadable word--or sometimes just put a question mark--or take a good guess at what the word is and put a question mark right after it.


Wednesday—January 1
This is the first diary I ever attempted to keep, but I know I will enjoy every “day” of this new year. The snow and ice has everything completely covered, and its’ a very beautiful sight. I have a head-ache, but am having a wonderful time, with my rag rug. B.B. is at the farm and will bring the calf home for food. (?—One unreadable word)

Thursday—January 2
It’s still dark and gloomy out-side. Buster is at the farm feeding cows. I am feeling fine today and “Short Tom” is enjoying our bright fire. We went to see “Janie Gets Married” at the mission. We came home by 8 and listened to radio. The calf was delivered to plant and killed. We will have plenty of beef.

Going to the 'show' was a major source of entertainment 'back then' and it's fun to research the movies that she writes about throughout her journal. And to think--these were the 'new releases.'

15 May 2012

Checking In

I've just finished reading Ben in Texas and about how he thinks he's addicted to writing his blog. I'm sort of wishing I was 'addicted' to writing THIS blog because I'm so inconsistent with it. So now I feel guilty (which Bigfoot will tell you is a perpetual state for me).

So now I've 'checked in' and said NOTHING (more guilt).

But Ben---You are correct. If YOU don't post every day, we get worried.

I DO actually have things to talk about, but now I'm feeling guilty about sitting here at the computer instead of washing dishes or doing laundry or getting ready for work. I'll check in later.

02 May 2012

First Fruits (and Vegetables)

Here are our first official 'pickings' from our garden. I took most of this to my boss. I kept the giganto zucchini squash and cut it into big chunks and added it to a pot of beans (along with some onion) that I pressure-cooked last night. Yummy . . .

There are some more squash that need to be picked today and we're just waiting for our tomatoes to ripen. Also, our spinach is doing well and we certainly have enough for a nice spinach salad.