In the summer of ‘93 I enlisted Freddiemy son-in-law to go with me to London, KY to see a 1950 Oldsmobile.
I was still working at the time and had heard about this 1950 Olds from a truck driver from KY who had brought pallets to Ravenswood Aluminum at the time. He said this car was a beauty and I just had to see it.
So, I had a few days off from work and Freddie was ready to go with me and looking forward to an adventure. Freddie liked old cars as well as I did. We timed the trip from Mt. Alto so that we would arrive when the Hurst Brothers Car Lot was still open in the early afternoon.
Finally we got there and sure enough the 1950 Olds that the trucker had told about was sitting there gleaming in the August sun. It had original black paint and the chrome was excellent. I was very interested.
Pretty soon, the salesman and owner came out and I asked him what his price was for this car. He said he would take $5,500 for it. I looked some more and saw Freddie talking to the salesman/owner behind the car. Freddie had told him he thought I would buy it if he would take $5,000 for it. He thought a minute and said he would accept that amount.
I wanted to test drive it first, but let the owner drive it in that busy town. I told him I could tell as much about it with him driving it as if I was driving myself. He put the car throught it’s paces and it performed really well. The car only had 50,000mi on the odometer. Before we got back we almost had a collision when somebody pulled out in front of us, but the brakes were good and that was avoided.
I said that I would buy the car but I would have to go back to Mt. Alto, borrow the money and come back in a week when I had a few more days off. He said that was okay. We came to some kind of preliminary agreement and away we went, the 300 miles back to Mt. Alto. He said he would keep the car in a garage until we got back in a week.
One week later Freddie and I were there again. We arrived a little late in the evening but it was still daylight. We looked through a glass in the top of the garage door and there it was just as he had said. We stayed in a motel that night and the next morning, we went to the car lot and I had my cashiers check ready to pay for the 1950 Oldsmobile.
We transacted the deal and Freddie and I hit the road, him driving my ‘78 Datsun and me in a ‘50 Olds that was running so smoothly with power to spare. I kept thinking about what Tom McCahill (he tested new cars in 1950) had said about the ‘50 Olds. Tom, being quick with a quip, said the new ‘50 Olds was “hot as a hornet’s kiss.” I bought the car and brought it home, waxed the paint and shined the chrome, It had futuristic signs to the moon.
This Olds would roll when finely tuned. On the hood was a rocket poised for flight.
Over a globe circled by a Satellite. Underneath was a version of a modern V-8, powered by the original Rocket 88. The body was a short and humpback style, so black and shiny you could see yourself smile. The Outer Space Age had arrived in a car that would really come alive. If you ever see me going down the highway while you are standing by the byway, will you recognize this merry Olds by these very verses that I’ve told?
Freddie and I mad it back to Mt. Alto without any trouble. I was very exhilarated to have found a ‘50 Olds as good as this one, even though the price of $5,000 seemed high to me at the time. Really it wasn’t too high.
I kept the car until 2006 and sold it for a reasonable amount. It wasn’t running when I sold it but there wasn’t much wrong with it. The person that bought it from me said he had to clean out the gas tank.
Anyway, after thinking it over, later, I was very sorry I let it go. Signing off for now, Dave.