This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
A car collector’s heaven


By BOB SIMPSON


LEFT to RIGHT:


Bob Sabourin, Brian Cooney, Norm Mckendry


We pull up to the American border and


hand our passports to the customs officer. He enters them into his computer. “Going to the car show again?” he asks. I guess it’s not surprising they remember us here. This is our 31st


year in


a row going to Carlisle Events in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for the big event. The customs officer asks us a few


questions about how much alcohol we have and whether we’re bringing anything to sell at the show, and we’re on our way. It’s a Wednesday, and the first day of


the five-day event. We hope to get there in time to spend at least a few hours on the site before dark. We’re setting South on Interstate 81 to join hundreds of collector car enthusiasts from the Ottawa area. There will be about 170,000 people in all. Our group is made up of Bob Sabourin,


16 BOUNDER MAGAZINE


Brian Cooney, Norm McKendry, and me. Our cars past and present include a 63 Avanti, a 55 Ford glass top, a 74 Javelin, a 71 Chevelle convertible, a 66 Chevelle SS convertible, a 67 Mustang fastback, a 71 challenger, Corvettes and two 29 McLaughlin Buicks.


We have enjoyed the hobby for more


than 40 years. Norm and I spent a lot of our youth exploring local wrecking yards in the good old days – when they let you in with your tools to help yourselves to all the great parts, the parts that are now long gone. We even took a day out of our trip one year to walk the old yard in Scranton; but for all the hundreds of cars there, we didn’t turn up too much. Our favourite yard was in Jasper, near Smiths Falls, Ont., which was full of cars dating from the 1920s. But that, too, is now long gone. After a few beers we usually get to


lamenting the cars we sold too cheaply or failed to buy. Mine includes selling my 67 Mustang fastback in running condition for $1200 and passing up a 68 Shelby for $38,000. That was 15 years ago, and we had just won a lottery, so my wife decided that if I really wanted the Shelby, we could afford it. But the laneway was getting a bit full already, so I passed on the deal and put the money into Nortel stocks. Enough said. I can remember a neighbour in Ottawa


who tried to unload his 69 Charger Daytona for about $10,000 in the mid-70s because it wouldn’t fit into his garage, and it wasn’t practical for grocery shopping.


www.bounder.ca


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72