Folks,
It has been a busy day, so I am going post what I have put together thus far.
Gary
.
.
Minnie Alvin Creamery Story
From Sharon Zorn Gerdes (’62): Windsor, CO
The mention of Minnie Alvin brought back many memories. Eileen Eurich was working for her, and when Eileen left I got the job of weighing, LIFTING, emptying cleaning and steaming those huge cream cans. You didn’t do any setting around when you worked for Minnie. But the really kicker was that I had to taste all the cream that came in, because she paid more for the sweet cream. Well some cans came in so rancid, some with a kids shoe in the cream, and other strange things I won’t mention. So I will admit that my ” taste testing” was sometimes a good guess, but never admitted that to Minnie. Her husband was sure a nice guy. It was so hot in that little place because of steam cleaning the cans. But I made five dollars for a long days work- that was great. Good old memories. sg
.
.
Bobby Bott’s 1957 Ford
Reply from Allen Richard (’65): Midland, MI.
To Dick Johnson—–
First of all — we both know that Ford sold more cars in ’57 than Chevy did. Second—- the ’57 312 engine was nasty — when teamed with an overdrive it had a reputation much like the Chevy 327 of the mid 60s.
In my memory the most legendary ’57 was the black and white 4 door hard top that belonged to Bobby Bott. It ran away from nearly everything — Nobody could figure out why it was that fast. It could pretty much hold its own with most things in the 1/4 — but then there was overdrive —- and the top end was WAY over a buck 20. In fact it easily pegged the needle before flipping into overdrive.
Well when I was racing dirt track in ’68 I was running a 312 with attitude issues. (Even tried it with dual quads on the highway— but that was over the top — another story) I figured I should look for another one to rebuild in case mine blew (it didn’t). Gary Pigeon and I ran across Bob’s ’57 somewhere in the hills. We popped the hood and Gary said —- “Well this is a Y block, but something is not right.” I asked what, and he said the fuel pump and water pump look bigger. Gary carried wrenches much like the rest of us carry wallets, so it didn’t take him long to pull the plugs on the left side. He went to the nearest fence and cut about a foot of wire from the left over wind and proceeded to stick the wire in the plug holes and measure how deep the wire reached. When he got to the deepest cylinder he scratched a line on the wire. “I don’t know what the hell this is, but It ain’t a 312.” We put the plugs back in and went to his place and checked Chilton’s manuals. Turns out it was a 368 that was an option in Mercs and Lincs for only 2 years. I didn’t try to get it because we were limited to 325 cubes. Now I wish had it. I can’t remember the rated HP of a 368, but I think it was in the 315-330 range. I rode with Bob once. He pegged 120 and then hit overdrive. It was another good 10 seconds before the acceleration pressure on my shoulders let up.
I put my old 312 in a rusty white basic ’59 Ford with a 4:10 rear and a Lincoln 3spd overdrive. (Yes back then you could get a Lincoln with a manual trans.) It would also do 120 before the overdrive shift— but the push on my shoulders in OD was not as intense. ——– just for us LUGNUTS.
Allen
.
.
Face Book capture.
Mel,
This is a beautiful picture of you with your mother. So sad she passed away in July too.
Gary
Mel Kuhn with his mother Alice Cote Kuhn
