In Part two - The 1949 Plymouth raises its head again or the World is a small place contest winner ..

The 1949 Plymouth would disappear and fall out of mind after Aunt Thelma had passed away. Then in 2009 at my Dad’s funeral a friend of mine told me about an old Plymouth that was for sale that I might be interested in. A couple of weeks past and I really wasn’t looking for project, but after being nagged a few times to go see the car, we embarked on a ride to St Thomas.

My friend was following directions written on a piece of paper and I remember thinking boy we are closer to London than St Thomas. When we arrived, I thought to myself what a cool old brick building this was and how it looked like a garage or commercial building built at the turned of the century. It really was a large building that had garage doors and enterances on the main street and a side street.

We walked up to the side door and out came a gentleman, I would guess in his 70’s and I remarked what a cool building he had He said it was his Grandfathers had it built in 1905 by one of the foremost builders of the day and he proceeded to give us a tour.

It was like a time capsule with several bays of projects that looked like they hadn’t been touched in decades. We then went down a long hall and came through the small office that was obviously for the garage and into what was more an old retail office space. He had offered us a coffee and we proceeded into a small kitchen area. He remarked that this was his Mom’s office really and that is why it was a lot cleaner. While it most certainly was, it looked like it had been pretty much mothballed for years. So as we got coffee, he said - “well you have come to see Mom Baby” and the truth is all I knew was it was a Plymouth. I didn’t know what year, what model or anything really. My friend was quick to jump into the conversation and said, yes we were there to see his Mother’s Baby and then went on to explain what major Mopar fans my family were.

Later on I found out that my friend had heard about the car from a mutual friend, but heard that its owner really

only had interest in selling the car if it was going to a good home and apparently he had tossed a guy who looked at it and suggested it would make a good project to put a 350 chevy in it.

He said, well I will take you over to show it to you. I thought we were going to be going for a ride. Instead he exited that office space in another direction and walked into another part of the building. This part of the building had garage bay doors on a side street.

As I walked into the garage, coming down two steps my jaw dropped. There in front of me was a 1957 Fargo PowerWagon. But the truth was, while the light blue Power Wagon was pretty impressive it was what sat on the other side of it that caused my jaw to drop.

There was the 1949 Plymouth Business Coupe and the second I saw it I knew exactly what it was.

There was Aunt Thelma’s Plymouth. I looked at my friend some how thinking it was a surprise, but nope, no one in the room seemed to know what I knew. I walked over, looked in and there on the odometer was just under 17,500 miles.

I said, nice garage and he said, oh yes, this is Mom’s garage, which means its heated, clean and only her vehicles get parked in here.

As he talked it became clear his Mother had passed away and the Power Wagon and the Plymouth had not moved since. On the seat of each were maintenance books, and every year he changed the oil and serviced the car, but the mileage listed had changed only 3 miles since 1989.

He said, well Im sure you want to hear them run and I hesitated, because the truth was I didn’t need to hear it run. I said, that would be nice, but I hope you don’t mind if I ask how much you want for them. He said, well the Power Wagon isn’t for sale, and the Plymouth, well it might be for sale. If it is it will take “$.....censored” to buy it. I said, well, you say it might be for sale, what do you mean might. He went on to say it was important to him that is go to a good home.

My friend piped in and started to become my personal marketing department and I stood back and smiled. Then it was time for a confession.

I said to him, well this isnt the 1^st time I have seen this car, and I am almost positive I can tell you a little bit about the car. He smiled and said, oh I would be surprised at that. I went on to tell him the rest of the story and about the time we got to Aunt Thelma’s wedding he was half laughing and half crying. He said, well well, you may know more about this car than I do. About then he did remember where he had seen me before, and that was the MC at Aunt Thelma’s wedding.

My fear was of course. that once he knew how much I wanted the car, the price would skyrocket. That turned out to be unfounded. Oh and my friend, thought it was supposed to be a 4 door Plymouth with an overdrive. Call it the world is a small place, call it my Aunt Thelma was somewhere directing me to get back her car, or call it blind luck, it really doesn’t matter.

After 30 minutes of talking and we hadn’t even started the car, he looked at me and said well should I start the car and give you a sales pitch on the car, or are you about to tell me you want the car and it doesn’t really matter.

I reached out shook his hand and said, I think we have a deal. Then I remarked I actually thought his Mothers was unmarried and didnt have any children. Turns out it was his Aunt, but he, his brothers and sisters and a lot of the neighbors kids all called her Mom. Yes I realize it adds to the confusion when you call your Aunt Mom, but it certainly started to get a lot clearer for me.

It turned out that the car was driven from a garage on Waterloo Avenue, about 4 miles to the Garage which had the license Bureau at one end of the building and the car was parked inside while she was at work. If it rained, apparently she drove the power wagon home and come the fall the Plymouth stayed in the heated garage all winter and she drove the Power Wagon back and forth to work.

When she stopped driving, the car stayed at the garage and only really came out when she wanted to go somewhere in her car, like her best friend Thelma’s wedding. Her nephew lived across the street from the garage and when his Aunt “Mom” passed away they sold the house on Waterloo Avenue to settle the estate and he wound up with the garage and everything in it. He was the youngest of his family and so when his Mom and Dad passed away he inherited the small house across the road and with all his siblings moved away he became he Aunts right hand !

It also seemed his real mother worked with his aunt at the license Bureau and his Dad worked with his grandfather and ran the local gas station and garage. So it all became pretty clear what had happened. Or at least clear to me !

Part of the deal was the Plymouth could remain in its heated garage until spring. So it got to spend one more winter in its garage, and in April 2010 my wife and I took the Dodge Diesel Pickup that I inherited from my Dad along with my car trailer down and picked up the Plymouth.

The picture of it sitting on the grass was taken the day I picked it up. He had taken it on to the grass yard across from the garage and gave it a bath before I picked it up. We drove home, and I took it over to a buddy’s garage for him to give it a safety. He laughed as he put it up on the hoist, then took the wheels off to look at the brakes and about an hour later called me and said – So I was going to service the car, but I see by the log book it was serviced 2 days ago. I checked the oil, checked he rear end and the antifreeze and sure enough it looks like it was all just changed. He said, so come pick it up, it didn’t really take a dam thing to safety.

So up to the Garage we went, got the ownership/title, and went and changed it into my name.The 1949 Plymouth Business Coupe, was back in the family !

In Part 3 - "So what would my Aunt do.. What would me Grandfather’s do and ultimately what would my Dad do !"