Hi Tim - In going through all of your “old car classics” that you sent me, I suddenly remembered (very solemnly) of my “younger-Years” and my Dad’s - 1942 Plymouth Deluxe 4-door Sedan - 6-cyl.
A tremendously - and terrifically well-built car.
Here's the story, remembered as if it were yesterday!
Since my Dad was considered part of the “War-Effort” during WWII, he was allowed to order a new car. The reason was because (He had a pretty-large “Poultry & Egg Operation” that created chicken meat as well as Powered-Eggs for the “Service”).
This was reported to be “the last Plymouth to come off the line” after the war started. Even though it was described as a “Deluxe-model”, it was mainly a body with NO chrome (just trim painted grey!) No extras at all. It was painted black-black. Of course it was a “straight-stick”, with both clutch & brake pedals.
I was around 14 when I first drove it. Got my license at 15 (In general - I just plain loved driving).
My first “adventures” with the Plymouth started around 1943. I was 15. My Dad kept the car in the basement of a Front-Street Bldg. known as Miller Motors, just a few doors down from where we lived in an apartment next to the Poultry-plant.
I had a NEED to drive that car that exceeded ANY “care” or even any WARNING from anyone!
When I would ask my Dad or Mom if I could “use” the car, my final answer would most always be a stern - NO! - “It HAD to last out the War!” Use it ONLY & WHEN necessary!
I forgot to mention - - I rarely took No for an answer!!!
I had lots of friends - who also liked to be “hauled around” - usually just “cruising” the main-drag (our Front Street), but making sure I didn’t drive past the “garage”.
When - after “asking for the car” reached a peak beyond which I couldn’t stand anymore, I finally devised a “plan” - and it worked for a few years! I was determined that “I would NOT be “dissuaded” in my WANT to drive!
There was a “night-watch man” at this garage every night so inventing a means to get the car out of that basement with an “inside-electric-button-controlled door was going to be a Real Challenge! But, as I’ve always felt - if there’s a will - there’s a way!
I used various guises to try to “trick” that watchman most every time I wanted the car (which was at least 3 to 4 times a week! (For whatever reason - I always succeeded!)
My “escapades” with that car covered distances from Mankato - only as far as I could go in order to get the car back INTO the garage basement BEFORE “day-light”!
Now of course, I had little or no money to put into the gas-tank, so I would always appeal to my passengers for a little - to try and put the tank-level back to where it was before “using” it! (Hoping of course my Dad would never notice).
After about a year of successful “operations”, one day my Dad questioned me - “If I had taken the car? -!!! Of course I denied it - big-time! He said he had been “watching” the mileage-readings, and noticed that they were different than when he put it in the basement - a few times a week. I continued to plead “not-guilty” and my Dad carried the issue to the owner of the garage. Now it should be noted here that my Dad did a LOT of business with this place and seeing how mad my Dad was over this matter, he had the night watchman FIRED!
(My Guilt - Guilt - Guilt!)
Much more vigilance would be required from me - and them!!! After that - to say the least, my job to get the car out was much much harder!
But, being just a bit “smarter” than my opponents, I kept devising new and smarter “means” to continue to “get-that-car-out! (Just keep’in ahead of the opposition).
As a matter of “history”, one of my “incidents” that happened with old “trusty”, was the time that I actually had permission to use it! But, again, it was a lie to get to use it! I told my Dad I wanted to take a friend to his house - a couple of miles away! OK said my Dad, but “come right back”!
Ya - sure - YOO bet!!!
The truth was - my buddy and I knew these two gals down in Bingham Lake, MN. - (About 75 miles away). Every thing was cool until we reached the outside of town - when - all of a sudden; it was like 15 empty metal garbage cans were dragging beneath the car! Loud? Gads you couldn’t scream over the terrible noise!
Well, we walked into town - to a garage that drove us back to the car and checked it out. THANKFULLY - it turned out to be that the Miller-Motors garage forgot to put the plug back in the “rear-end” and the pinion-gear froze-up - big-time!!!
So, they filled the rear end with grease and we started our trip - very slowly & loudly to Mankato!
I’m quite sure there are people still alive that remember that car and the terrible noise going through each of their towns - back then!
When coming into Mankato, and nearing our plant, my Dad said years later, “he was standing on the curb nearby the plant - and even though the car was still out of vision-range, he could hear that awful noise - and somehow just knew it was his car”!!! (Ho boy what a bad son I was!)
Another story (among nearly a hundred):
On an other “expedition” - after stealing the car, My-self and 3 other couples decided to go to New Ulm - about some 30 miles away, to go to the New Ulm Ballroom. We got there around 10:30 pm, and swung wildly into the dirt-parking lot.
Being dark, I didn’t notice the huge rock just ahead of me till it was too late! I hit it full-bore and the car and all six of us were suddenly elevated about 3 feet - OFF-THE-GROUND! We were actually stranded on top - balancing on that huge boulder!!! We all slowly climbed out and down.
It took a huge crowd of “interested” people to help get that huge thing off of that rock! (Most every one was drinking, so that made it more of a challenge).
Later, after doing”maintenance” on the car it was reported to my Dad that the underside of the car looked pretty “crunched”. The muffler was smashed - near shut! The floor of the car was bent up a bit! And the drive shaft had a slight wobble to it! Hmmm - wonder how THAT happened, my Dad said, after he asked if I knew anything about it!!! And - obviously, you know the answer!
Just have to confess one more. It was again that I had a “car-full” of guys & gals and was heading towards St. Peter (on old #169 - today’s #22). We kept picking up speed as we left town and as I reached the crest of a hill nearing St. Peter, I noticed the speedometer read 115 miles an hour. Going down over the hill, there was an explosion never-before-experienced! The windshield was nearly obscured with some kind of “liquid”, and the car just sort’ a slowed in a rather straight line. The sound went from a ROAR to complete silence as it came to a complete stop - right there in the middle of the highway!!! Well we all hitched a ride into town, where upon I called my Dad to tell him “something” was wrong with the car! He asked “what”? I said it was “running great when suddenly there was a loud noise and when I stopped, it had a giant hole in the hood as if ‘something-had-happened’! But, my Dad was NOT through with her yet, he had it ALL FIXED up!
After about 3 or more years of this “hit-and-run” tactic, and the war was over, I took my old trusty - rusty pal for its “last ride” in 1950! Actually, I was married by then and 21 years old, and my Dad STILL had the car. It happened in an accident - (that should have/could have happened at least a hundred times - years earlier, but guess God was watching over me).
It happened in the late afternoon as I had just learned that my second daughter was about to be born, I borrowed the car to rush home to my wife.
It happened there at a busy intersection in a residential area. A car came out of a street from my left - and I smacked it “full-bore”. Next thing I remember was waking up - with my head down between the clutch & brake pedal upside-down and the car was sitting on the steps of a church on the opposite corner. Being as how someone called my Dad - There He was! Dad was speaking to me - “Are you OK? He pleaded!” I was SO relieved to SEE HIM!
Now - as I write this story - I feel REAL guilt that I played so many games with HIM.
Thanks, - and for that - Forgive me Dad?
That old ’42, - - - obviously it would and did go through HELL itself!
It had over 400 thousand miles on it - 300 thousand by me - for sure!
It was now over! ! !
Grant her rest - Oh Lord! (In that junkyard in the sky)
Lynard Produce J.R. & Shorty
Gene Zimmerman by Dad's car.
Lynard Produce Co. 1941 Truck
Jim Lynard's 1949 Chrysler Town & Country ("Woody Convertible - it was "Fire Engine Red, REAL White leather seats & dash, w/a "continental EXTENDED rear end" - Total length 19ft. - 3"!!!!)
