Again, many folks are putting the names on the unidentified people
in the San picture. Brenda Hoffman triggered my memory when she said
the tall guy is Stanley ?—- that’s Stanley Dowling. Thanks for
bringing up his first name, Brenda. It sometimes take a little hint to
jar the memory. He was well known but I could not remember his name.
Thanks again to Brenda and Gary!

The Main Street picture I was trying to put a date on( ’42-’43) is
the one taken looking south. The other one had been sent in earlier by
Bernard Morin and I think we decided it was probably around 1960, as
Allen Richard said. He also mentioned the ’60 Chevy in front of the
bank may have been sold by Joe Spaeth. I had a few car deals with Joe,
myself. He let me try out a ’46 Ford pickup once. It had been traded
in and we knew the guy had replaced the engine and transmission with an
Olds ‘Rocket’ V8 and automatic transmission. We had seen him drag race a
Mustang and give the Mustang a spanking so we just had to try it out.
It had poor steering and WAY too much power and some real poorly
engineered engine mounts. As we brought it back into Joe’s lot behind
the Corner Service, I stepped on the gas a little to get over the rise
behind the curb. The engine mount broke and the throttle linkage pulled
the throttle wide open. The brakes were almost non existent and I
couldn’t find the key to shut if off for a split second too long and we
smacked into the side of KCs store, right about in the shoe department.
It was in the evening so the store was closed. We didn’t go through the
wall but it gave it quite a whack so I suppose KC and Margie had a few
shoes to put back on the shelf the next day. I went in with the keys
and told Joe he would have to have someone check out the engine mount
before someone got hurt. I think I may have–may have–neglected to
tell Joe about smacking the wall. Joe got a demo 442 Oldsmobile in
1965. I was looking at it sitting on Main Street in front of the Corner
Service and couldn’t believe it had the big ‘442’ letters painted on the
doors like a Nascar race car. He came out with a cigarette in his mouth
and said, “Get in and I’ll show you some real power.” We went out to
Dale’s and turned west and Joe stuck his foot to the floor and I was
impressed to say the least! We all had cars that we thought were a
little faster than the next guy’s but this was wild! Anybody else
remember the 442 display-demo car Joe had? Seems to me it was white.
It was the earlier ‘square’ type Cutlass body. I think it was passed
around between dealers so Joe probably only had it a few days. Thanks Gary!

Dick