BOB POLLI'S RIDE: 2012

Saturday, December 29, 2012

When I was 12 years old, my dad brought home a barely running, beat up 1949 Crosely Hotshot for the two of us to "work on"..My dad owned a gas station and was a mechanic. So from time to time, we had a junkyard collection of fixer-uppers in the driveway. The Crosley was the first project car I can remember and my favorite. We got it running good enough for me to run home from school with my friends and take turns driving it up and down the driveway for hours. I found an old motorboat windshield and tried to figure out a way to mount it on the Crosley. I brush painted the car with leftover house paint inside and out to cover the rust. I had sanded it to bare metal a couple of times but didn't have car paint to finish the job. So the rust would set in and I would sand it again. Finally, I used the red paint that my dad painted the a book case with the year or so before. I loved that car and driving it up and down the driveway. I learned how to shift and how to patch tires, fix radiator leaks, fuel leaks and change oil. One day my dad came home early from work and hooked MY car up to the back of his truck and took it away. He sold it to someone for $75...I was destroyed by the loss..and by my dad's seeming indifference to my feelings about the car. I got over it and my dad brought at least a dozen other cars home for "us" to work on. I finally was old enough to drive and got used to a different car every few weeks....But I will never forget that Crosley...