We were living outside Camdenton Mo. at the Lake of the Ozarks. I bought an old 1963 Ford van with 135,000 miles on it in 1975. The van came with a stack of all the maintenance papers since it was new, every oil change, lubrication, everything. It had a 170 cubic inch six cylinder engine mounted between the front seats. It was a beautiful passenger van with windows all around and even a helper step that slid out when the side doors were opened. It was as close to pristine as a 12 year-old van could be. The 3 speed column shift suited me well. I loved that van. I bought it for my TV repair business because my old Dodge pickup limited me carrying all I needed for service calls. The van did provide some interesting experiences for me.
The first thing happened two days after I acquired the van. I was subcontracting for another TV shop and Joyce was going to take the van to the license bureau to register it and get a new plate for it. The license bureau was inside a local car dealers showroom. Joyce parked the van on the dealer’s lot and went inside. She did not get it into gear properly. There was a mechanic that had just finished working on a customer’s car and was pulling it around the lot to park it by the showroom. As he turned to park the car, the van was backing up toward him. He honked the horn to let the driver know to stop, but there was no driver in the van. The mechanic threw the car into reverse and backed around the lot to escape the van’s rearward progress. He watched as the van rolled across the parking lot and then right across the busiest highway in the area (a miracle there was no vehicles at that single moment) and then rolled down a steep grade into a ravine. It hit a tree about 20 feet down the hillside and stopped after bending in the two doors on the top end of the back of the van. Joyce strolled out the door with the new license plate and wondered where the van was. The mechanic asked if she was looking for a blue van. Joyce said she had parked right there as she pointed at the empty spot. The mechanic said he saw it roll across the lot and right across the highway. He, Joyce and all the other mechanics crossed the highway to look down the hill. The mechanics all agreed that it was lucky it hit that tree because if it went past the tree it would have been so deep into the ravine that no tow truck could pull it out. Joyce was less sure about how lucky it was.
The second thing happened a day later. Our State Farm insurance agent was not happy, but agreed to cover it to an extent. He was willing to pay the $500.00 I paid for the van and total it out. I asked him what they would get for selling it as scrap. He said about $200.00. I knew I could still use the side doors, so I offered to take the $300 and keep the van. He was okay with that. I left with the check and went home.
The third thing was a week later. It turned out I found I really did need to use those back doors, so I went to a neighbor 2 doors up the road to see what we could do to fix the doors enough to use them.Old Ray was a nice guy and a good neighbor. He owned 100 acres that surrounded our 4 acre place. He spent his working life, first as a traveling wrestler all over Missouri (he had some great stories about that) later he built boat docks for many years around the lake. He had a huge barn that served as his workshop and tractor barn. He looked at the job and said we could make it work, but not look like new. He got out this huge hydraulic jack that extended from its 6 foot closed length to well beyond that. We set it up inside the van, from the base of the engine cover to the back doors and started slowly increasing the jack length. That good old Ford steel slowly pushed back out until the doors looked good. I went around back and tried the doors and they both worked well. It was so well done even the paint didn’t chip or crack. I asked Ray what I owed him and he said not to worry about it.
The old van was still running fine and the doors still working when I sold it in 1977 when we left for San Diego. I got the original $500 back when I sold it and with the $300 from the insurance starting out, it was probably my best deal ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment