I heard this call and it reminded me of an experience with a 68 Ford Falcon I had. I was living in New Jersey at the time and a friend gave me his old Ford Falcon. It was a rust bucket, with holes in the floor boards and water would come in from the tires whenever it was raining - which confused the heck out of me the first time it happened as it was coming up at my face. The car would only go about 20 miles per hour. I used the car to scoot - or crawl around town- on those rare occasions when I wanted to see a movie. I poured some stuff in the oil that was supposed to clean out accumulations and when I pulled the plug on the pan it looked like tar or molasses coming out of there. After that the car with its straight 6 could drive at normal speeds - though all the squeaking and rattling sounds from the body kept me from driving too fast.
Anyway I use to park the car -and finding a spot where I lived wasn’t easy. I’d often leave it there for a week or so as I worked within walking distance and would just use it once in a while -always after dark- to catch a movie or something like that. Well on one of those occasions someone towed it license and all saying it was a public nuisance or an eyesore or something like that. I thought someone stole it as unlikely as that seemed. I eventually got a message from the city saying I owed them a few hundred dollars for towing and storage if I wanted the car back. I told them to keep it - it didn’t cost me anything and I sure wasn’t going to pay a few hundred dollars in ransom money.
So, be tolerant of old junkers, they may belong to someone like me.
“So, be tolerant of old junkers, they may belong to someone like me”.
Good advice. I drove the same car to my job as a university professor for 33 years. As time went on, it did get a little shabby, but I did keep it road worthy. However, I had some colleagues that were almost hostile about the car–saying that it was unbecoming to a faculty member to drive such a car. That made me more determined to keep it on the road for a couple more years.
I did come out after my last class for the day and the car wasn’t in the parking lot where I had parked it that morning. I figured that the car had been stolen and called the campus police. When I described the car, the policeman that took the car said, “Your kidding. Are you sure you didn’t park the car someplace else?” It then dawned on me that I had gone to a meeting across campus and it was raining, so I drove the car. After the meeting, the sun was out, so I walked back to my office. I apologized to the policeman and walked to the parking lot across campus where my car was still sitting.
I was in a similar situation in college with my 1948 Chevy. I parked it on the street in front of a professor’s house. One day he offered me the free use of an unused backlane garage, which I graciously accepted.
His real motive was to get that clunker away from his front window. The professor drove a 1957 loaded Plymouth, which turned out to be one of the worst cars ever made. I had one when I went back to school for a Master’s degree, and could not afford better.
a few tears ago I had some medical problems causing me to miss 3 months of work. finances got tight and we could not aff ord to keep two vehicles insured and on the road. so, since I was not using my truck, I took it off the road for a year or so. it was at the back of my drive way, only visible ifyou looked straight down my drive. the truck is a '75 ford and at the time was 4 or 5 different colors and really ugly, but you could only see the front grill and wind shield, it looked fine from that angle.
the town code enforce ment officer wrote me up and I had a date to have it towed if it was not tagged by then. now this small town is a real old boys network. the fire chiefs family had two vehicles parked on a town street that were un tagged for three and seven years, respectively, and there were at least ten other vehicles around town that were in similar states and some had been that way for years.
the selective enforcement really ticked me off and I documented many of the more egregious violations of the town code and had the info ready to send to the local paper and the town council.
I found out that because I lived next to the post office and across from the church (which I now attend) some of the local bigwigs had complained.
I did not mind so much, except for the selective enforcement. if the code was applied equally iy would have been ok.
well I managed to get the truck tagged again, and I parked it on the street in front of my house for god and everyone to see.
When I lived at home, no one on our street had a garage so everyone had to park in front of our house. Dad had a new Subaru, my brothers had a new Chevy and a Triumph. I had the 55 Desoto with a can underneath that collected transmission fluid to be refilled in the morning. That was all a college student could afford.