Buick Specials, Roadmasters, and The Good Old Days

In the good old days, car repairs seemed to always be $200. It didn't appear to matter what the repair was, it cost $200. New brakes - $200. New shocks all around - $200. Generator broken - $200. Then a few years later that doubled to $400 --- A/C not working - $400. Radiator rusted out - $400. Now it has doubled again and then some - front end bushings, tie-rod arms - $900. Fuel pump - $900. Brakes, drums, rotors, master cylinder - $900. So today it's a head or manifold gasket, new thermostat, and some water hoses - $900. Apparently, they have to disassemble most of the vehicle to do these things.

One winter years ago, my brother Jerry and I were driving home to Nebraska from a Christmas visit with parents and family in Montana. It was about a 16 hour drive and we were doing it in one stretch in my 1956 Buick Roadmaster -- the fancy one with the four portholes on the side, wide white wall tires, power steering, brakes, windows -- the top of the line Buick of its day. The year was 1972 or 73 maybe. About 11 at night while driving on I-29, the headlights suddenly dimmed and the electric indicator lights on the dash showed a power drain. The generator had lost its brushes and therefore was no longer generating any voltage.

I know this because we managed to pull into Elk Point, South Dakota and park under a street light and pull out the spare generator I had in the trunk and crawl under the car in the cold snowy night and remove and replace the generator.

Why, you ask, did I have a spare generator in the trunk? Well, my dad bought me a 1956 Buick Special when I was a High School Senior to get back and forth from school. That was a pretty cool car, too, but not as fancy as the Roadmaster.
While driving to school one day, another driver rear-ended me and totalled my Buick Special, which led to an insurance settlement, which led to the purchase of my Buick Roadmaster. But before having the car towed to the junk yard, I stripped if of any usable matching parts I could think of and carried them around with me in the trunk.

So we pulled off the Interstate into Elk Point, pulled under that street lamp, unbolted the old generator, bolted in the new one, connected the various wires and continued on our journey back home. Ahhhh, those were the days.

So here I sit today, waiting for my $900 car repair on my 13 year old Chevy Blazer S-10, wondering why my students at Metro Community College drive brand new Mustangs.......And working on a new painting, which I'll probably post later. Wait, I may have just answered my own question........

Regards,
Bud C
www.artbycassiday.com