Postcard Art and Tuesday Story Series: 67 Plymouth

Recently we purchased the dogs some new toys - stuffed animals without the stuffing, so they are very flat. Well, not having the stuffing took all of the interest away for our dogs! But I took a photo of one of them because it is a great illustration of how I felt this morning when I got up. Or tried to get up. Last night was very rough and I honestly can say that I felt just like this:

Yeah, he looks cute, but I didn't!

In the afternoon I began to feel like I had a little life in me, so I finished a postcard I had started yesterday evening.

On My Way

(click for details)

Mixed media includes collaged tissue strips, cheesecloth, rubber stamping, Russian postage stamp, acrylic paint, vintage earring, metal sun, gem brad and liquid watercolors. It also has some gold accents.

***********************************************

'67 Plymouth

56th in the Tuesday Stories Series

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we had once lived in the community of Goose Creek. Before we moved, we had been living in a small rented brick house where we had started married life. When we met, John was driving a nice, navy blue Buick Skylark, and I was driving a slightly run down red Ford Maverick. John, being the true southern gentleman that he was (and still is) insisted that I keep the Skylark for when I needed it and he would take the Maverick to work. This was a sacrifice in several ways on his part - the car used a quart of oil a week, was not reliable and as the head of the agency where he worked, it was a step down to be driving that car. It left him stranded several times on the Interstate, and sometimes he would come home with a face as red as the car's paint! 

After Tabitha came along, we decided we needed to get rid of that car, and find something more reliable. We knew a man who fancied himself as an expert on cars, especially old ones, and had several contacts in the car world. We asked him if he could recommend someone to us for buying a used car, because our budget was tight, and he said he had just found out about a good bargain. One of his friends had just rebuilt the engine on a 1967 Plymouth and the body was in great shape. He took John over to see it and give it a test drive and talk with the owner. We decided that the price was right, the owner was honest and the car was much more reliable than the Maverick. So, it became ours. It was huge, a white boat of a car, and when in it, you had no fear of being squashed if you were hit!

(This is not a picture of our car, but the one we had looked just like this, except it had hubcaps on the tires)

Soon after that, John was offered the job in Goose Creek, we found a place to live, and started packing our belongings. It was summer in Charleston, it was hot, we were very tired and after our friends had taken the truck on up to the new place, we loaded the rest of the things into our cars, including a cranky baby, and gratefully drove off to meet with the rest of the moving team. I mentioned in the other story that Goose Creek was some distance away from Charleston, so we had several miles to go on the Interstate. John was driving the Plymouth and I was following in the Skylark. Suddenly, white smoke came billowing out of the Plymouth, so thick I could hardly see the car ahead of me. I didn't know what was going on, but we were near our exit and John was able to keep the car limping to our new condo, where it died. It seems the engine blew. The new, rebuilt, engine.

A couple of days later we sold the car to a scrap dealer who came and towed it off. As I stated before, we spent our time in Goose Creek with just one car. At John's next job, in Charleston, it came with a car as one of the perks and once again we were a two car family. When we mentioned to our friend what had happened to the car he recommended, he said he was really sorry. It wasn't his fault, necessarily, but we never asked him for advice again about car purchases!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!