Dispatches from the Front

It is amazing how a little sun can brighten ones mood. This winter has been a tough one, especially as we all got off so easy last year.

It was below freezing yesterday but the sun made it at least look like spring, birds were even singing. As the roads were dry I decided to charge the battery on the Thunderbird use my meager gas budget to pick up the children from school. No real difference in cost taking the T-Bird over the Lincoln as they are both powered by 460 cubic inch V8s.

The 73-76 T-Birds just seem to be smiling at you

The Thunderbird does seem to have a tighter torque converter and more responsive gearing so it is a blast to drive around town. The rear wheels want to break free at every traffic light when one has a heavy heel.

The rad might have a slight leak, so I am keeping my eye on that, I believe I have a spare from a 72 Mark IV tucked away somewhere. Free is good. 

The last two weeks have been busy pumping out a series of automotive business articles for Canadian AutoWorld, a dealer focused magazine.

The rest of the month is dedicated to a very difficult and time consuming edit project for an industry directory.

Certainly glad for the freelance work but my real goal remains a career position in marketing.

The Lincoln was in for an oil change, I usually do it myself but one it was too cold, two my friend had given me a coupon for a free service at a local garage. I arrived early and had a nice conversation with the shop owner. Lots of car magazines in the waiting room. He was a big MOPAR fan and we chatted about cars for ages, his quote, “You are a fascinating woman, I could talk to you all day.” And Is your husband into cars as well?”

Mark IV oil change, check out banana bike on wall! 

The seventies Stutz revival cars came up in conversation, wouldn’t you know it the magazine with my article on them was right in front of us sitting on top of a pile of Hot Rod magazines!  I so wanted to claim credit for the article but it had my old name on it.

Stutz Blackhawk prototype 

Speaking of names, my name change is all official right down to my drivers licence and health card. Passport next.

Good news from CAMH today that I am approved for surgery. Still very much hurry up and wait as their positive findings have to then be approved in turn by the Ministry of Health. Only then an appointment for surgery can be made.

Fingers crossed things move swiftly and smoothly as the T-Bird did yesterday afternoon.

Heard on the car radio last week, still sounds so clear and amazing for 1958.

Hugs,

April

PS. photo of me is from Sunday before I went grocery shopping, hate my massive forehead, which I try and hide most of the time, really want to get my hair line moved surgically.  

     

Diana Dors' 1959 Cadillac

 I always wanted to be a starlet….with apologies to Goodfellas.

I secretly idolized the blonde bombshells of the fifties, preferring Mamie Van Doren and Jayne Mansfield to the mainstream fascination with Ms. Monroe.

Then there was home grown Diana Dors. Like Jayne she had a thing for Cadillacs, a rarer trait in conservative Britain. Her most famous was her first, a 1955 series 62 baby blue convertible that she took with her to France. On the streets of London it caused a sensation, pastel and chrome, people ran after it having never seen something so cool.

I heard rumours she had a 1959 Cadillac like moi. One hire firm claimed to have a pink 59 Eldorado convertible that belonged to her. Seemed too good a story to be true, I had never seen any candid or publicity photos showing her with her over the top automotive counterpart. Last year I found a photo of her with just part of the rear fin visible, clearly a 59 but it could have been taken when she lived the States. Finally last night proof an official fan site. A 1959 series 62 convertible (not Eldorado), you can tell by the single row of teeth in the rear grill and Cadillac V and crest on the trunk lid it is not the very similar Eldorado model. The best part is the licence plate DD 200 !

It is a black and white picture…would it be too much to assume it was painted pink?

Extra:

Amazingly her house, Orchard Manor still stands much as it was in 1984 when she sadly died of cancer. Jayne’s pink palace was torn down. I hope Diana’s home survives and is not redeveloped. It is totally Hollywood and should be preserved as a historic site. http://www.dianadors.co.uk/orchard_manor_41.html

watch her bio pic here:

Hugs,

April

A Miraculous Journey

Reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane with my 10 year old.

The book is about the adventures of a china rabbit. But it is really about love.

I don’t think I have ever come across such a beautiful written story, which is all the more beautiful and a joy to read aloud.

Oh yes I cried and cried, once safely in my own room. I had trouble a few times carrying on reading, claiming I had some dust in my eye or perhaps I am getting a cold.  But such is the story that we gladly exceed story time by a few chapters.

At one point Edward is rescued and befriend by a tramp and his dog. The tramp whose name is Bull explains that he and his dog are lost. He did not mean lost in a geographic sense. That struck such a chord; I have felt so lost myself throughout my life but perhaps never more so than now.

Wishing you all happy endings….

photo Virgil and I

 Later that night, Jack came and sat next to Bull and asked if he could borrow the rabbit. Bull handed Edward over, and Jack sat with Edward upon his knee. He whispered in Edward’s ear.
“Helen,” Jack said, “and Jack Junior and Taffy — she’s the baby. Those are my kids’ names. They are all in North Carolina. You ever been to North Carolina? It’s a pretty state. That’s where they are. Helen. Jack Junior. Taffy. You remember their names, okay, Malone?”
After this, wherever Bull and Lucy and Edward went, some tramp would take Edward aside and whisper the names of his children in Edward’s ear. Betty. Ted. Nancy. William. Jimmy. Eileen. Skipper. Faith.
Edward knew what it was like to say over and over again the names of those you had left behind. He knew what it was like to miss someone. And so he listened. And in his listening, his heart opened wide and then wider still.
The rabbit stayed lost with Lucy and Bull for a long time. Almost seven years passed, and in that time, Edward became an excellent tramp: happy to be on the road, restless when he was still. The sound of the wheels on the train tracks became a music that soothed him. He could have ridden the rails forever. But one night, in a railroad yard in Memphis, as Bull and Lucy slept in an empty freight car and Edward kept watch, trouble arrived.

Takes One to Know One

No not a transsexual but someone who has suffered with depression.

I was at boarding school in England when Ant Mania was at its height, though being a proto rockabilly rebel I had no time for music that though interesting lacked ideological purity.

I recently came across Adam Ant’s new album and particularly like the cut Cool Zombie. Hooked I went back and listened to the songs that were a soundtrack to my last years in the UK. 

I also came across the documentary, “The Madness of Prince Charming”, despite the overly cute title it is a harrowing account of his depression, breakdowns and hospitalization.

The documentary struck a cord, like soldiers comparing notes on the same battle. I admire his fortitude to carry on.

And Oh Boy was he handsome back in the day!