Cars I Have Known II

Second in the series, and second car I owned. Again, this isn't my car, but very similar. Mine was dark copper- think brown- with a brown interior. Options? it had a 'Speed Minder', which was a needle you could set on the speedometer to what ever speed you did not want to exceed. When the speed indicating needle hit the 'Speed Minder' a buzzer would sound. I didn't think the thing would still work (Herman {I named this one Herman} was 18 years old when I had him), so I set the needle on 75. Late one night I hit 75 and the buzzer went off and about scared the crap outta me. To this day I can't tell you what scared me worse; the sound of the buzzer or the fact that I realized I was actually doing 75 in this beast.

Herman was the proverbial $100 car. It had a transmission problem when I bought it (I fixed it in an hour and with $10 in parts- ahhh; the good old days) and had very few problems afterward. He was set up just like Harvey- 389 cubic inch engine and an automatic transmission, and Herman was massive- I once loaded 8 other guys in one morning for rides to work, as nobody else's cars would start- and heavy, which was a very good thing when driving in snow. And we drove in alot of snow. Did I mention Herman was my car in North Dakota?

Again, the stories I could tell, if the statute of limitations had run out! The base was 25 miles from town (too far in some instances; too close in others) and Herman was the ride on Friday and Saturday nights. Seven of us wouldn't be uncommon, and some of those 2am rides back were... interesting? I have said many times that the only reason we made it back to base sometimes was because Herman knew the way.

Herman was a good companion for a year or so, until he got impounded on base for some unremembered reason, and the only way to rescue him without paying the impound and storage fees was to sell him to somebody else. A friend and I hatched a plan that he would buy and register Herman for 6 months, then I would buy him back. Jim got Herman, registered him on base and I got orders to England and a couple other cars. Last I heard Herman was still on the road.

But, last news I had was 30 years ago.