Another Sherman tank yarn, veracity unknown: At a time after the war when surplus Shermans were just scrap, a New Jersey wrecking firm got the idea of using one as a cheap and fast way of obliterating the houses then being removed from Route 10 in Northern NJ...10 was fast making the transition from residential road to a neon highway. Whole rows of houses were being scraped off the map and replaced with shopping centers. The scheme was inadequately examined...the Sherman roared into house number one and dropped right into the basement. Damn near everything in NJ has a basement, and rather few of the first floors were built to support 30-40 tons... Ways of removing the tank were checked, and all cost a good deal of money to recover a tank that was utterly useless for the job it had been chosen for...so, since the land was to become a parking lot, the sensible thing was to just fill it all in and try to forget an embarrassing failure of planning. Now, maybe the tank is worth more than some of the rows of failed nail polishing joints and Chinese take-out places... Anyone have an leads/rumors/lies to add in to the story??
I never seemed to have a camera with me when I found ditch cars. Cell phone cameras weren't around yet. I found a 34 Chevy Tudor half buried. I also found a early 20s T touring by tripping over the windshield stanchion poking thru the dirt. I dug it out and have a rough but useable body that some day will be used as a roadster body convert. I unearthed a partially buried 56 F100. Not much is useable.
The Jalopy Journal
