Old Cars Galore!

Soon after we bought our new house in Morton Meadows, Janene went to work for Beneficial Life and later, Western Savings and Loan to supplement my meager restaurant income. That meant we had to have another car for her to get to work, so we went out and bought the cheapest car we could find - a '56 Chevy Belair. It never occured to us that this could be a classic ride, it was just a way for her to get to work. There were some cool things about it. The kids had a virtual living room in the back seat (no seat belts to keep you down). Half of the gas station attendants didn't know where to put in the gas. These were the days when they pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, checked your oil and put air in your tires. (The taillight pulled down on a hinge and the gas filler was behind the light). Shortly after we bought the car, the engine threw a rod and my brother and I had to completely rebuild the engine. It was one of the first V-8's. Not long after that, our repair job had to be done over when it threw another rod. We used it to go buy all the stuff for our fence including all the concrete from Sutherlands. When we started over the viaduct, the front wheels lifted off the ground and I had to slam on the brakes to be able to steer. We took the car to my parent's home for Christmas Eve because it had such a big trunk. (you could haul a ton of Christmas presents in there, as well) On the way home, it got a flat tire and we had to leave it on Davis Boulevard and get a ride home because there were no stations open and our spare was flat. When I went back to get it on Christmas, it had been impounded because it had been abandoned and someone complained about the heap in front of their home. I found it in Bountiful Motors' lot, changed the tire and drove it home. We were soon visited by uniformed officers who were going to charge me with theft of my own car if I didn't pay the impound fee right away.

I soon started working for a new company installing fire systems in restaurants and got to use a company truck, a 1971 Ford 1-ton truck that had belonged to American Oil. I also had the use of an old Land Rover. This was the first car I ever drove that had "cruise control". It was just a lever on the dashboard that allowed you to keep the engine speed the same. I could hardly see over the spare tire mounted on the hood. We took it to Canyonlands and drove it over Elephant Hill. The ride was so rough that Janene got out with both of the kids and insisted on walking to save their lives. This was the beginning of a long tradition in multiple vehicles. To this day, Janene has never driven over Elephant Hill - even though I have a number of times. She always walked.

As you can see, it worked! The kids made it home safely and were able to enjoy their life at our new home. Our stay at this home would be fairly short, since Janene's connections with Western Savings and Loan would allow us to get a construction loan for a new home in Bountiful where we could be close to both of our parents.