Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
While I have been enjoying the snow and the awesome winter weather of late, I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about my appreciation of living in a place that experiences 4 seasons. Having grown up in the central valley of California, my experience with snow and ice has been minimal at best. I was excited to move to Oklahoma where I stood a chance of finally seeing a white Christmas, after all, I missed it by a week when I was stationed in Denver in 1970. I finally got to see a Christmas that had snow on the ground, even though there was none coming down that day. That was sufficient to get it crossed off my bucket list, but it has to have an asterisk, so I would like to see a snowing Christmas day still. It’s not like I love snow so much that the thought of living in Minnesota appeals to me. There is plenty of snow around here to satisfy my desire for 4 season climate.
This week, the temperatures have risen and Monday was a beautiful day to get out and enjoy it. It’s too soon to get the grass all greened up, but it was nice enough to get my cars out of the garage, so I could tidy up a bit. Now, I haven’t driven my yellow bullet nose Studebaker for months. I doubt that I have even put 100 miles on the odometer in 2023. That’s not good for a classic car and I procrastinated all year, but I never forgot and always meant to start her up, but didn’t. My bad, I know better, and I have learned the hard way to NOT do that, but I did it anyway (or should I say, didn’t do it). Monday was too nice a day not to, and I dragged myself out to the garage to attempt to remedy my shameful neglect of that beautiful car.
I disconnected my battery tender, sat behind the wheel, put the key in the ignition, and twisted it to the right to fire it up. Nothing… It had been a long time since I started the car, and I had forgotten that I have a disconnect switch in this car. After a big “oh yeah” moment, I got out and switched it back open. I got back behind the wheel, cranked it, and it fired right up. I let it run for a bit while I mopped my garage floor. I had already removed both other vehicles, so I was easily able to make it shiny and clean again. Our resident feral cat has been living in the garage during the cold nights, but she was good about not leaving me a mess anywhere on the floor.
I took the car for a spin around the block, and she was not suffering any neglect issues. The brakes were fine, and that was a relief. I cleaned out the interior floors in all three vehicles and moved them back inside. I don’t let them get too dirty, so a quick wipe with my duster was enough to make them look nice again. Later, when we are fully into the nice weather, I will give them a wax and a polish. I like driving a clean car, especially when they are as nice as mine. Hopefully, I will be able to get out with them more often in 2024. We can call that a New Year’s resolution, it’s not too late.
