220117 Sentinel, Wonderful Life

I believe I have had a wonderful life so far.
Not everything was great, but overall it has been grand.
My memories are boundless. Every day something reminds me of my past. Today is no different. I’m listening to fifties and sixties music on YouTube and this came to mind: It was 1963 not long after I met Joyce. I had a beautiful piece of junk in the form of a 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser. The car was sharp looking, but had a bad transmission and an overheating engine.
My Mercury looked just like the picture below. Perhaps this could have been the one I had.

I was working in a gas station in a bad part of town. I needed to work on the car and that was everyday after work. My dad was helping me change the timing chain, a mechanic recommended but something I do not recommend. It took us 2 weeks to complete it because we were both working all day long before we could work on the car. As soon as we finished I headed over to see Joyce. I didn’t even put the hood back on the car. I rolled into her driveway with the hood off and using a brick to keep the car from rolling back. The parking brake would stick and then drag when I was driving, so I couldn’t use it either. The 58 Murcury did not have a parking gear as most automatic transmissions did. Joyce was in no mood to ever see me again at that point because I hadn’t called her during those 2 weeks or let her know what was happening. Theres another story there which I do not care to share. She thought I had dumped her. She was reluctant to go out with me. I found out later that her mother didn’t want me to take Joyce out in a car like that, thinking it was a dangerous vehicle. It was her father who told her mother not to worry about the two of us together, It may have ended for us right there, if not for him. What would have happened without Joyce in my life? I don’t even want to think about that. I know it would not have been wonderful with anyone I had dated until I met Joyce.