There was only one caveat: I insisted that it must fit into the unusually tiny garage integral to our 1940-vintage house.Īfter all, we already had a 1978 Lincoln for which we had to rely on the generosity of friends to store during winter. We arranged to come back the next weekend with a check, and she arranged to have Uncle Jeff get the car out from the back of the shed so we could collect it. It was hard to tell through the dirt and grime, but Aunt Judy assured us the exterior was a lovely tan and that she’d give us the family discount on what we all knew was a car worth at least a bit more than the $3,000 she decided was a fine price. The brown velour, the instrumentation, the radio, and the rest of the interior were an exact match. The interior was a dead-ringer for his, save for his having the rear-window defroster that only became available in Thunderbirds for 1978. His first car was a 1978 Thunderbird, in Town Landau spec. X saw memories where I only saw a neat old car. After Uncle Del passed, Aunt Judy drove the car only a handful of times before she finally just parked it all together. They parked it for the winters, during which they’d use the 4×4 truck to get around. They drove it in the summer some, and Aunt Judy drove it to work sometimes. She insisted that they get another Cadillac, so they sold the car on to Aunt Judy and Uncle Del. After a couple weeks, Grandma Vesta came to hate the car she’d become accustomed to four-door Cadillacs, and the Thunderbird’s two doors were inconvenient and heavy. So the story goes, my great-grandparents ordered the car new from the dealership. The interior smelled of dead… something (turned out to be a mouse). The license plate was of a style Michigan no longer used, with the last registration being from 2007. There was a car, covered in a thick layer of dust, dirt, and grime. We went to have a look, and what we saw was the literal barn find. Uncle Jeff wanted his shed space back, after all. And it was time for the Thunderbird to find a new home. Aunt Judy, not one to take life sitting down, decided it was time to part ways with the old house, a lot of the old “stuff,” and move closer to her daughter to enjoy life. The Thunderbird, once a source of pride and enjoyment for my aunt and uncle, had become effectively discarded, relegated to effective abandonment in the far reaches of her brother’s machine shed behind a combine, tractors, and other miscellaneous farm equipment. Uncle Del had passed back in 2002, she’d been wintering in Florida, and her daughter lived three hours away. So, in November of 2013, it was hard to look away when my great-aunt sent word that she was looking to part with her 1977 Thunderbird. It certainly isn’t among my friends and family, and it’s a thing that my brilliant companion through this life happens to share. It’s probably no secret by now that I have a thing for big brougham-y old land yachts. ( After the very popular “ How Does a 1978 Lincoln Town Coupe Drive Compared to Newer Cars“, I asked xequar if he would oblige us with a write-up of its companion car.
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