Cars a way of life

By

opinions

August 28, 2015 - 12:00 AM

Drive by Iola High on a school day, and you’ll find its parking lot jammed with pickup trucks.
Today’s is a mobile society and kids are no exceptions.
Last Saturday vehicles old and new, and nearly to a one in better shape than when they came off the assembly line, filled much of the south lawn of the Allen County Courthouse for the Haunt for Hirschsprung’s hot rod show. In many respects it was adults being kids at heart.
Among those on hand were Jim West and Bob Walden, Iolans who like few things better than to visit about their high school car club, The Coachmen. Walden had his pristine 1953 Studebaker pickup at the show. West passed this time around because of a gimpy knee, but couldn’t resist coming by for a short look about.
Car shows are the go-to place to crow about what months of labor produced, as well as give owners a chance to regale spectators of how they came about their beauties — those they have and others from years gone by that some how slipped away. The slipped-away stories often are intriguing.
Just ask Humboldt’s Frank Shoemaker.
For years he had his eye on a 1957 Dodge Royal Lancer, owned by Tom and Nora Horan. While working at Chanute’s Bell Body Shop in 1968, he put a new torsion bar on the car. Horan, who learned to drive in later life, had thought about trading in the Dodge, but reneged when she found newer cars didn’t have push button transmissions — she had no stomach for something different. That kept the Dodge out of Shoemaker’s reach.
When the car did become available at auction in 1981, Shoemaker was unable to attend. Five years later Shoemaker snapped it up when he had a chance. Having been garaged for years, it was in pretty good shape. But, after more than half a century any car, coddled or not, is going to have wear and tear. It also had some damage along the driver’s side, from a bout with Horan’s narrow garage.
Shoemaker went to work with zeal, restoring the fancy Dodge to its original condition. He takes it for a spin now and then and the winged beauty — remember those fancy wings on rear ends from the late 1950s? — occasionally is put on display at shows. When the car became his, it had 46,700 on the odometer; now, a touch over 61,000 actual pure pleasure miles.
If I had the wherewithal it would be fun to have my 1964 Chevelle Supersport back in fine fettle, or even the 1951 Pontiac I paid $20 for way back when. Instead, I’ll settle for my customized — as in half a dozen mishaps and lots of rust — 24-year-old Ranger pickup. Like Marvin Smith’s old truck, it may not be pretty, but it gets me around town.

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