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That could almost be an advertisement for Lloydfest III

Cheers,
Harv

 

1982 (wife corrected me on the year). We lived about 10 miles out in the country, on the top of a hill. The road past our house was an east/west narrow gravel road with 3'-4' deep ditches on each side. One of those roads the county didn't plow until last. Our driveway was on the west side of the house, with a 24' x 36' deep garage that sat about 10' behind the house, inline with the driveway. I had 3 or 4 cars parked just past the west edge of the 2 car wide drive way, and just west of the parked cars was a row of lilac trees. The property ended just west of the lilac trees. The one acre property was surrounded by a farmers field, which was picked clean. We parked our driver cars on the driveway right next to the house, because the garage was full of car parts (I sold cars parts as a sideline business).

That winter was rough. it was either 20-30 below 0 temps, or it warmed up to near freezing and dumped a bunch of snow.
It started snowing Sat morning before sunrise with a brutal wind coming out of the west. By noon we already had more then 10" of snow on the road and we knew the road would not be plowed until at least Sunday night. The snow and wind kept coming all day and into the night.

We woke up Sunday morning to a bright sunny day, with already dropping temps. Looking out of our kitchen window (it faced the driveway) all you could see was a huge snow drift, no parked cars, just the top 1/2 of the lilac trees and the top panel on the garage door! We couldn't even see our mail box that was side of the driveway, along the road. The drift across the front yard was about 8' high! We couldn't get out of our back door, we had to go out the front door, and walk across the top of the snow drift. It was packed so hard, it felt like I was walking on cement. As I walked towards the driveway, I could see about a 6" x 3" wide strip of the red vinyl top our car had, I couldn't even see where the 4x4 Ramcharger was sitting! Standing on top of what I figured was where the Ramcharger was under all that snow, I could look out over the top of both the garage roof and the house roof!
At 7 am, I started digging through the snow. By 10 am, the entire family was manning shovels. By the time we got the cars dug out, a path dug to the road wide enough to drive on, and the path to the back door cleaned up, it was already getting dark, and much colder. I had been digging nearly 12 hours at that point. I could hear the plows working on the roads near ours most of the afternoon, but it was nearly 8 pm before it made the 1st pass down our road. The official snow fall for that day was 24" over a 24 hour period, and drifts up to 8' high (like the one across our driveway).

We were not digging because we thought we were going to go someplace, we were digging because we knew we were going to have to do it if we ever wanted to go someplace.

 

Another snow story. In Jan. of 2022 I stupidly broke my ankle and was laid up for 3 months. In Feb. we got a freak Nor-easter that dumped 32" of snow on us.
Obviously, with the broken ankle there was nothing I could do, but the next day 7 or 8 of my neighbors were out there digging out our cars, driveway and path to our front door...for 4 hours.
I guess being the neighborhood "fix-it" guy, keeping their lawn mowers and their kids bikes functioning properly for 30 years certainly pays off.

 

That sounds like a real party! I'm from Dubuque, and I had my fill. You know, they built roads that can lead you out of these God forsaken places.....

 

Yes they do, and we use them to take us away as often as possible.

We did move out of the boondocks and onto the edge of the city (pop 25,000) 23 years ago. We have been looking for a place to go to get out of this state (we live in one of the better parts of it), but we are confronted with a few issues that keep us here.
Most of our family is here. We have a pretty nice place that is in great condition, and its paid for. I have some doubts that I can get my money back out of it, and at almost 69, I'm not ready to start over with debt. We have been in 30 of the states that occupy the central part of this country and haven't found a place we would want to move to and start all over.
I guess the biggest deal for me is we have to pick a place to plant our flag, dig in, and fight for it. At this point, this place looks like it is my place.

 

I had a 318 with a two piece crankshaft, it was broken at about the same place, except mine was across the rod journal. That 318 was a long way from "stock."
The night before I was abusing the car a bit hard, it had this slight knock at an idle that next morning, but it still had great oil pressure. I was a few blocks from home when I noticed the temp gauge jumped up real fast. I pulled to the side of the road and shut it off to investigate. As soon as the hood was open, I noticed the belt that drove the water pump was off the pulley. Like any good mechanic, I figured I would try to roll the belt back on and drive the car to my shop, a few blocks away. The belt rolled back onto the pulley really easy, and the belt was still pretty loose! Pulling on the belt a bit showed me that the crankshaft pulley was moving! Thinking that I'd never seen crankshaft pulley bolts loosen up before, I looked a bit closer. Those pulley bolts were not loose, the balancer was moving along with the end of the crank. Not good! I closed the hood and drove the car to my shop. It tool about 3 weeks to build a new motor and get it in the car.

 

LOL Gene. I know EXACTLY what you mean.
NY is as bad as IL. for weather, taxes and politics, but we are just too old and comfortable to leave and start over...and the house is paid for. Besides, as bad as NY is in the winter, our view out back just sucks us back in.

 

We moved here in 1972 A bought 80 "remote acres" near a neat little historic town. The whole valley had about 500 people. Now the town has over 16.000, probably 25,000 in the valley, and the county over 64.000 with thousands of houses under construction. Land was selling for $100 an acre, ours was $139 because it has springs with water rights. There is now a 640 acre parcel 2 miles from us listed for $20,000,000! ($ 31,250 an acre) It sold less than a year ago for $10,000.000. Taxes have gone up a lot, the highway is dangerous and poorly maintained, gas is above the national average as well a groceries. There is increased crime and much gang activity. In Reno 50 miles away there is at least one murder a day and usually more. As well as several traffic related deaths a day So if you are thinking of moving to Nevada to get away from it all you are too late. The hunting sucks now too! Oh yes, our land has not increased in value that much.

 

I've lived in Freeport IL for most of my life (except for 16 years we lived 10 miles out of town at the place mentioned above), born and raised here.
Illinois is about like CA, it has the second highest rate of people moving out of it in the country. The population in our town has been dropping every year for a decade or more, even though the city limits keep expanding. Beyond my back yard fence, there is a pair of railroad tracks, a cement company, and 2 different rivers surrounded by almost a mile of low "flood plain" land.
My wife and I are both retired. That means when the weather is cold and snowy, or hot and humid, we don't have to go anyplace. We are home unless it gets much worse.

 

116 here... what's all the white stuff?

 

Is Pfeiffer's Engine's still around? Every racer and hot rodder in Dubuque knew that they were the best around. I had all the work done by them on a 454 back about 1990, and they treated me right.

 

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Myrtle Beach, SC is FULL......!! Sorry
6sally6

 

Excuse me, sir, you can't park there.​

 

If you want attention park on a busy intersection , not any old local gas station.

 

Pfieiffer's Engine service is still basically still here. Old Bob passed away 10 (or maybe 15) years ago. Bob had 3 sons. Steve, the oldest one was probably working there then when you were there. He was the one that followed in Bob's footsteps. The middle son, Terrie was the one that drove Bob's dirt track car. He would have been the guy that ended up doing most of the clean up work, he cleaned the greasy motors, and kept the shop clean. The youngest, Jamie was there because he was expected to be, he was mama's boy.
When Bob died, Mama put Jamie and Terrie in charge, and expected Steve to follow their directions. That worked out about as one might expect. Within a couple years, Steve started his own shop (I want to say it is "Steve's Engine Shop on Smokey Hollow Rd Freeport IL" but its been a few years). The Family took Steve to court and he couldn't even use his last name in his business name. The Family kept the Pfeiffer name and ran the shop into the ground in a few short years, after Steve went on his own. It didn't take but a few months after Steve left for the locals to understand if they wanted the Pfeiffer quality, they had to go to Steve to get it. As of a couple years ago, Steve was still going strong, but he, like most of us, is getting up there in years (I believe he is in his early 70s now). I know that a couple years ago, the automotive supply chain issues was hurting him and when I quit handling welding gas in Oct 2023 I lost contact with him.

 

Missed the bridge by this much...
Man, what a ride!

 

Hmmmm,,,,,

 

Sigh. And so it goes.

 

Folks from the South may appreciate this one more than others..........

 

Is that the place that sells battrees and does linements?