A sentimental trip down memory lane.

[glxtasy@juno.com (ken r weidmann jr.)]

I got this off of the 356 list .  Do you think we will be as nostalgiac
in the future about our cars?  WE can only hope so.



Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 20:23:13 -0800
From: Dick Rowley <rrowley@pop.tiac.net>
To: 356talk@356registry.org
Subject: Reunion
Message-ID: <34C183B1.7B16@pop.tiac.net>

Hi All,

Here's a story most of us dream about but never really dare hope for,
admit to, or speak aloud. A story of a day that started like any other,
but.....

A few days ago I got a call from an old acquaintance who had learned I
was looking to get back into 356's. He was too late since I'd already
bought a nice C coupe with which I'm delighted. My desire had been to
find an early A coupe since I had owned one in college (and you know how
all that goes), but the C satisfied the need, or so I thought.

I needed a part or two for the C and I knew this guy had parts galore,
plus I can never resist looking at old A coupes even though the cars in
question were not described encouragingly. So with no need for another
car and no place to put it, off I went hoping I could come home with a
decent C trunk lid handle. In fact, hoping to ONLY come home with that
and no more than that!!

Got to the place but friend is detained and will be "at least an hour"
but I was free to poke around the many barnloads of cars on the property,
which I proceeded to do feeling a little glad to not have a chaperone.
Looking through barn after barn of 356's and other cars, I was beginning
to feel relieved that none of them were even close to calling out my
name. But I was wrong...

Last barn (chicken coupe, actually), last car, way in the back in a
corner, an early A coupe. Sad looking. But you know how some cars, no
matter how much they've been through, have "the spirit" still intact?
This was one of those... the ones that defy logic.

I looked; looked closer... the odd maroon color of the dash was
familiar... it couldn't be! Could it? The engine was out, the glass out,
interior gone, doors off, gas tank gone. The car had really been ripped
up and work abandoned. But there was a B steering wheel and column, still
intact??!!... How many A coupes have that? At this point I'm feeling kind
of excited, creepy, and  wierded-out all at the same time. I lifted the
engine lid and there was the red lead paint I'd gotten from my dad's
workshop 30 years ago and used to brush-paint the engine compartment
firewall. Sure enough, it was my old friend from college. More looking...
yes, the welding repairs we made to the nose at a friend's farm (man, I
don't remember our welding being THAT bad!). Chassis number checked
out. The twin dimples in the cowl where the trunk lid flew up. All I
could think was "Wow."

So I had an hour to just sit there in my old car, thinking, touching
things I had carefully polished what seems like several lifetimes ago.
Very strange, having read Peter Egan's article in the latest R&T just
this morning (if you read it, you know what I mean).

Anyhow, of course I bought it, wouldn't you? Old friends have to stick
together. I can't even guess how many times I've wished to have that car
back over the years, even though it never was anything special in anyone
else's eyes.

That was my day, folks. One in a million huh? Old 58116 comes home to
roost (no pun intended, chicken coop-wise). So it goes to show, you just
never know. Thanks, Porsche gods, wherever you are.

Dick Rowley
'65 C Coupe
And !!!!
'57 A Coupe !! (serial # is late '56 but she was registered as a '57 when
I owned her so that's what she'll stay!)

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