84 Years Old and Still Driving His First Car

Wow,,,the ol' guy has been able to hold on to his first love,,,and found his second only to lose her after many years,,,

His first love remains with him,,,cool story! HRP

 

And it's black with red wheels...Old skool style....

Seriously though, great story! Thanks for posting it! I wish my grandfather's had kept some of their old cars.

 

Met an old gent outside a motorcycle swapmeet. He was 83 years old and riding a 1938 Police auction Knuckhead he bought in 1940. Calvin was grumpy and distant at first but then loosened up after a few minutes of conversation. Seems I was the first guy who talked to him all day who hadn't tried to buy it off him for little or nothing.
We talked for about an hour. He had some great stories about riding in the old days. He'd lost track of the total miles he'd put on it, but it was his only tranportation for about 8-10 years, a couple of those years with a sidecar. It had been wrecked and repaired 4 times, had the engine rebuilt 5 or 6 times [he couldn't quite recall], and had 4 trannys rebuilt or replaced over the years. Broke an arm and 2 ribs in one wreck, and an ankle and a hand in another. But the highest speed accident he had he walked away from without a scratch. He road the thing all thru WWII and saved enough gas rationing coupons to buy a model A Ford and take a vacation with his wife to the Smoky Mountains in 1944. He also gave a WWII serviceman a 150 mile ride to his base when the poor guy was stranded and in danger of being AWOL. As proof of the old adage "no good deed goes unpunished" a tractor pulling a hay wagon ran him in the ditch on the way home. No harm no foul.
He'd been offered good trades for new/newer bikes and uncounted offers to buy it out right but he never felt the newer bikes offered any real advantage over his 38. That, and the fact it hadn't killed him yet and he was a tightwad was why he still had it. He laughed. What a neat old guy.

 

Man O Man what a neat story. That store kind of brings it home about America and the kind of people we are.
Those red wheels and wide whites are so cool!