STORY LINE:  YOU’RE HERE FOR A GOOD TIME … NOT A LONG TIME.

While fine dining with John Vermeersch at the world famous GUS’s CONEY ISLAND in world famous downtown Mt. Clemens one evening, the good ‘Doctor John’ came out with a phrase he had heard or read somewhere. That phrase being, “You’re here for a good time … not a long time” is one that likely we should all take to heart and legally live by. Life is tooooo short not to be enjoyed and not to excel at whatever it is that you do. Being the best you can be also helps make things to be a good time too. Sounds right to me.

So, to that end, for me and countless thousands of  other folks on this granite planet we call the good Earth, automobiles are part of the plan towards grounding the air of happiness and a good time. Ahhh, another collectible piece in the garage will work just fine then.

So it is that as I am age-ing gracefully, the vehicles I have so always desired are now becoming a reality part of … personal good time needs. A few years back it was the 1 of 3 known to exist Mercedes-Benz 540K proto-type build for the replica industry, the 1961 Impala SS 409, multiple Cadillac convertibles,  a couple of 1973 Pontiac Grand Am cars(which I still own including the dual cowl Chris Craft kit boat that dad and I built in 1950)and now … a 1961 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible. Black and beautiful she is, she’s here for a good time.

When I was 15 years old and earning a substantial living as a Detroit News paperboy, my route of three blocks in the neighborhood where I lived housed people who generally loved automobiles-as do all good Americans-and typically drove new cars. Two that I remember well both aboded on Packard Street and drove Oldsmobile cars. One was a Medium Tan Metallic 1958 Ninety Eight two door hardtop, the other was a Garnet Mist Red 1961 Starfire convertible. Another of my entrepreneurial adventures was to polish neighborhood vehicles, which allowed me to be close to cars, work on them and with a little luck even drive the cars. Oops … got caught by my mom ‘tooling’ around in Mrs. Kelemary’s 1962 Chestnut Brown Thunderbird Roadster, you know the one with 3x2 barrel carbureted 390 and the fiberglass tonneau backseat cover. Hey, I was cool for a short time and it “Was for a good time … not a long time”.  

I did polish that 1958 Oldsmobile but mom strongly advised the owner that his car was to remain at his house and not to allow me … to drive it. The Starfire was a beautiful car and Mr. Gallant closely guarded it from my grasp. I never did get to polish that one as he and his sons maintained that car impeccably, as they did everything they owned, from the lawn to clean windows to their Corvette cars. It is a car though that I never forgot.

330HP/394CID of Oldsmobile Rocket power and wrapped in a convertible with power windows, seats, steering and brakes. Black is beautiful with a Rust Red leather interior bucket seat trim-even the built in ribbed stainless floor mats are spectacular! Glasspack mufflers and custom wide aluminum side accent trim, just 7,600 were built for the 1961 model year-not many still exist today. And yes, this is for the Good Times!

The world is a harsh yet wondrous master, it rewards the strong with adaptability. The fate of the others is extinction …a wise person should seek the wisdom of his world.