Heres the star of our show, his wife Nicki, and a boxful of memories… oh, that’s me on the left
Last-minute preparations included gift wrapping, display box preparation, final studio pics, and several Peter Gabriel videos from the '80s... some would say it's no surprise that we missed the 8:40 train the next morning. Two hours behind getting out to Indiana, and yet we ended up a quantum leap ahead on an epic celebration of dad's retirement birthday. Dad and Nicki set the stage well. A trifecta brewery tour through Western Michigan on a clear-skied, even-temperature summer day. I couldn't ask for a better day off for myself, let alone for the man of the hour...
An hour of waiting led to walking around a quaint town setting in Sawyer, Michigan, the whole time figuring out how to best present the car to dad, and, of course, when we were gonna sit down and eat already. Well, it happened, and the staff and the food could not have been better. The waiter at Greenbush was more than accommodating for clearing and wiping down the table for "what happened next" as the kids say on social media these days...
The moment had arrived… Get this tissue paper out of the way…..
So, tell us Dad….
Does it look like the ‘68 you remember your old man handing you the keys to your junior year of high school?
It’s seeming like the answer might be yes. The day is far from ending here…
Memories, hugs, stories, AND clarifications to the story flowed from here. Without further delay, let's look at some thoughts dad had as he opened his album. First, here's one part of the story he cleared up...
HE NEVER WRECKED THE CAR
Until this weekend, I was positive he had wrecked the car in 1972. Not the case. It was about that time that dad was about to become a dad. So, the "demise" of his car was actually trading it in for a more "family-sized" car. Funny now to think, that a classic car the size of 3 Honda Civics could be "too small" for the fam, but, that's how it was. Four-on-the-floor became a family truckster, in the form of a 1971 Olds Delta 88.
Also, the original wasn't exactly a graduation gift, as I had initially guessed from the years. It came as more of a surprise around the summer of his junior year. A buddy of his had recently bought a '67 (or maybe '66) GTO. Dad thought it would be great to have a car like this, which he mentioned in passing to his dad, my grandfather, Elmer Madden. Elmer, I'm told, was quite fiscally conservative back then, so it came as a shock when one day that summer, he pulled into the driveway with a brand new 1968 GTO and handed dad the keys. Elmer made the down payment and dad made payments from there for the next three years. At the time, dad told me, a new GTO ran in the neighborhood of $3,000.00. Speaking of grandpa...
Grandpa’s diner
Elmer's Restaurant sat on the corner of Monroe St and 22nd in the Old West End of Toledo. Grandpa, Elmer, ran the restaurant for over 40 years. Before that, he was brought up in the business by a man named Pete Burling, the owner of Burling's restaurant until Elmer bought him out. The Burling name always remained in the signage, and only this weekend, through this project, did I learn what that meant.
They were SO LOUD
Noise, my dad told me, was the quite the issue for me when I was a child of single-digit age. Loud noises in particular, much to the point that I couldn't sit still, stay quiet, or focus on anything when they entered the room. So, I can imagine what a great idea he thought it was, in hindsight, to take me to my first monster truck show in the mid-80s. To hear dad tell it, the minute Bear Foot fired up its massive 400+HP engine and roared into the arena, I must have declared my own screaming competition with the truck, and apparently, I won a couple rounds in the process... Dad says I eventually came down and got over it, and I must have blocked the trauma out of my memory, because I remember liking the truck shows from there on forward. We did go to more of them, so I must have somewhat adjusted.
The story, while perhaps a little embarrassing to the older me, is a great insight for me into how I have moved about the world in the decades since. I do often still find myself anxious or panicked, when faced with loud rooms & multiple loud voices, especially when having to focus and engage in the chaos. Running away and screaming has been replaced by deeper breaths, and better selective tuning out of the less important things in the atmosphere. Good to know where that feeling comes from though. In short, stories can be sometimes, like the family album pics of you in the bathtub, a little embarrassing, but important to hear, and important to learning more about who you are now. Thanks for that dad.
The story doesn't end here dad... we still have to put you in the "drivers seat"... I believe we have the technology. Not to mention, a few studio pics are already in place. Hope you'll let me borrow the keys...
