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JAY B: 1st GM N 85-91 & Syclone-Typhoon
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Some of you may remember this 09/26/2016 “Memory Monday” entry (seen via link HERE), featuring a newspaper clipping a cousin & his wife found hidden when they had their house torn apart for extensive remodeling. Ever since that entry, my mind has been racing with possible plots around that photo. What follows is something that has been brewing in my head for a while. Who knows … this might become a 3rd continuing story, along with “Don’t Forget Schuster” & my Route 66-based chronicles….

“Ew, what is that?”

Dillan followed his wife’s outstretched pointed finger to a little scrap of paper that seemed to be clinging to a dusty, dingy old floorboard in what had been a makeshift 1st floor bedroom. He paused, as if to study the piece of paper, then stooped down to snatch it up. He straightened back into a standing position & unraveled the scrap.

“Hmm, appears to be a newspaper clipping of some sort, honey. Looks like Granddad standing next to a Cadillac, probably a limo. Looks like he is dressed as a chauffeur.”

Whitley peered over her husband’s arm to eye the scrap of paper.

“You’re not going to keep it, are you?”

“Well, I’d like to at least investigate it. There must be some reason Granddad kept it.”

“You & your sense of preserving history…. I keep telling you that time keeps marching on, things change & better things come along.”

“Yes, & that’s precisely why we are standing here in the middle of utter destruction.”

“What you see as destruction, I see as potential to make it better … to turn it modern.”

“Some things, you just don’t improve.”

“What? Like your old car? I let you keep that old Checker cab just so I could do this to your family’s homestead. C’mon, darling, even you have to admit this place is pretty horrid.”

Whitley waved her arms around the room as if to demonstrate proof of her last sentence.

“It only looks horrid because it is completely gutted.”

“& this is just the beginning….”

Whitley kept talking about her plans for the house once the half-demolition was complete, but Dillan half-tuned her out. His gaze had turned back to the old newspaper clipping. From the looks of the car & what he remembered about vintage Cadillacs, Dillan guestimated the car to be a 1950 model, which, he calculated in his head, would make his Granddad about 25 at the time, if the photo was taken in 1950. He retraced his Granddad’s history in his mind, but couldn’t come up with a logical explanation of why he’d be chauffeuring someone around in a 1950 Cadillac at that age. He studied the image a bit more & figured his Granddad couldn’t be more than 30 or 35, which meant the pic might’ve been taken sometime between 1955 & 1960, which wouldn’t render the Cadillac to be considered vintage yet, classic, perhaps, but not vintage at that time.

“I know you’re not listening to me….”

His wife’s words after a short pause in her monologue about house plans startled him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, honey, I’m just trying to figure out this newspaper photo.”

“Tell me something I don’t know….”

Whitley ruffled her fancy coat & pulled it more tightly to her body, as if that would somehow make it magically warmer.

“I’m getting cold, Dillan. Let’s go ahead & go now, please? I think we’re done here for now, anyway. Not much more we can do since the builder didn’t bother to show up as we agreed he would today so we could re-go over our plans for this … place.”

Dillan hadn’t really noticed the bite to the wind, but he did now. Course, he was already numb to what was happening to his favorite boyhood house. It still hadn’t quite sunk in what he’d agreed to allow Whitley to do. He knew it would make her happy & allow him to not only keep the property in his family as it had been since way before his Granddad’s time, but also move & live on the ever-cherished family land. Yet, he was sad to see the house in such a state … 2nd floor completely torn off & the 1st floor looking more like a war-torn relic than the warm home he’d known all his life. As uneasy as the house’s appearance made him now, he knew the architect’s plans he & Whitley had approved would be a vast improvement over what had been there. A small part of him was actually looking forward to seeing the finished product, partly because the architect had skillfully drawn in many of the house’s original characteristics into the new place.

“Besides,” his wife continued, “don’t you need to get that Checker put away for the winter anyway?”

“Yeah, I suppose I should. I don’t want to, but … it’s probably time. Can’t wait until we move into this place, & I can park the Checker in a heated garage here so I don’t have to take it anywhere else for any season.”

Dillan pulled the Lincoln’s keys out of his right pants’ pocket & hit the remote start button.

“Car should be warm by the time we get out to it.”

“Good,” Whitley said. “So, darling, tell me what your theory is about that pic of your Granddad? & don’t tell me you don’t have one!”

“Yeah, I do,” Dillan chuckled & smiled. “But, I’m not sure how to investigate it. There really isn’t much to go on. It’s just Granddad with what I believe to be a 1950 Cadillac limo. This sure seems to be from a newspaper, but there is no date on it & the back is blank, which, come to think of it, must mean the photo was on an outside corner of the paper. I can’t imagine the other side of a newspaper being blank like that, especially 1 from way back when.”

“I don’t know,” Whitley shrugged. “I can’t imagine that would’ve been taken out of state since your Granddad rarely road tripped. So, maybe you could start at the local library or the office of the local paper & see if anyone might know anything?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Dillan replied. “That seems to be as good a place to start as any. I mean, I’ve went over his history in my head, well, more like skimmed over it, & I can’t for the life of me figure out why he’d be driving a limo of all cars! &, for that matter, I’m not even sure when this pic was taken. It could’ve been taken in 1950 or as late as, perhaps, 1960.”

Whitley angled her head to peer at the newspaper clipping again.

“Eh, I don’t know, darling. Your Granddad don’t look a day over 25 in that photo.”

“Right, but that would mean, if that is a 1950 Cadillac, he was driving a brand new car. You know he never did that!”

“Well, he never OWNED a brand new car, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t hired to DRIVE a brand new car….”

“Maybe….”

“Well, c’mon, let’s go, Dillan. Lincoln should be well warm by now. We can continue batting around theories while you drive us back to the hotel.”