|
Below are two newspaper ads that Barbara Hullings
sent me. The first one is a Miller Ford ad featuring two 1960 cars;
The first one a Ford Falcon and a Ford Fairlane 500.
Ford introduced the "compact" Falcon in 1960 and I
thought it was neat that I purchased the first one Charlie Miller
had. It was a two door, white with a blue interior. I paid, or
should say financed, $1750.00 for my first ever automobile. It
didn't have a radio or a heater. Since I had been hired by American
Airlines at O'Hare field in Chicago, it was a wise decision to have
Miller's install one before I left for Chicago. Unfortunately since
this was a brand new model, Miller's did not have any parts for this
car yet, and that included a heater. So the mechanics at the
Miller's garage install a truck heater which hung down in the area
of the feet of the passenger's side. Factory installed heaters are
up under the dash and have vents to heat all areas of the car. This
truck heater had a small grill in front of it that produced warm air
only directly in front of it. They took a piece of wood, screwed it
on with hinges so I could direct the air on to the drivers side. I
still froze. The next time I was in Alderson I had both a factory
heater and radio installed. Compact cars were new at that time and
it was fun watching people watching me.
I bought two more cars from Charlie Miller,
a'63 Falcon 4 door this time because I had two kids by then, and a
68 Fairlane which was had now become a "mid-sized" car.
The next add is for a 1960 Oldsmobile from
Copeland Chevrolet Co. Mr. Copeland had talked to me about buying a
Corvette, an automobile that I certainly drooled over, but it seems
in my formative years I had developed a dislike for GM cars and
preferred Fords. I felt Fords had more of a hot-rod demeanor than
GMs. I've never bought a GM car.
Although I didn't care that much for GM automobiles, overtop
of Copeland's show room was their service area, and at a
younger age we
bicycle riders road in and would look around for such things as old
ball-bearing, piston pins, or any discarded item we could have and
carry around in our pockets.
There, worked a delightful gentleman named Johnny Coiner, a good
mechanic and friendly person who didn't mind us young scavengers
lurking about the place. You never heard "Get out of here kid,
you bother me" from Johnny. He talked to us and seemed genuinely
interested in us.
I always thought it was a shame that both of
these companies were no longer Alderson.
I'm sure there are a lot of you that purchased
automobiles from Miller's or Copeland's. It would be interesting to
hear about your first car even if it wasn't a Ford or Chevrolet.
|
