The ShortyMobile...

...began in my memory with the blue-green Kaiser-Frazer in the 1940's. That was followed by the green Plymouth, a forty-something, which we owned in 1951, when we moved to the house on Oak Avenue. I know we have photos of it...

It was Dad who kept it timed, tuned, and running perfectly -- except, of course, for the next minor tweaking it would require. Shade-tree mechanic that he was, Uncle Shorty dispensed a fair amount of mechanical knowledge around the neighborhood, and it seemed there was always some vehicle in some part of the drive being repaired or maintained.

From the Plymouth on, the ShortyMobile was always a green or blue, Chevy or Ford. Actually, despite living in 'Ford Country,' the Fords didn't start appearing in the driveway until the seventies. Buying American meant something different then...

Regarding the blue/green thing: Dad always went to the dealership intending to get the 'hot red one' he'd always wanted. And, without fail, he came home with the special-deal-floor-model -- always green or blue.

Backseat position in the ShortyMobile was critical and is what was "called" in our house. Safest space was behind Auntie 'Rie; Uncle Shorty spit snuff juice out the driver's window. Enough said??

In the seventies and eighties I remember seeing a red car, a Falcon wagon, if I recall correctly; I know he bought it, what's the current expression...pre-owned?? That vehicle eventually made it to Ann Arbor, methinks, along with the other ShortyMobiles that eventually ended up in Carl's care.

Ironically enough, in the eighties, when Uncle Shorty could finally buy the car that he wanted (instead of what he could afford), he'd still wait until someone in the family was due an extra employee discount.

He had a Ford LTD before he finally got the Lincoln Town Car, both of them midnight blue. I remember how big, elegant, enveloping and safe they always felt. I remember needing to accommodate the size differences from my green Volkswagen and gold MG Midget to his big cars in those days, and from our current compact cars, once the current Town Car moved here.

The Final ShortyMobile is a 1989 Lincoln Town Car, midnight blue -- with all of the bells and whistles. Final irony there for me is that one of the things Uncle Shorty always told me about buying machinery was that the more bells and whistles it had, the more things that could go wrong that _I_ wouldn't be able to fix.

On August 11, 1997, the ShortyMobile made its move to IC. Although Mom and Dad had been visiting the area for over 20 years, most of that time was spent in the neighboring Bedroom Community in which we used to reside. They spent much of the fall of '97 re-acclimating to the new part of town, the new roads, the new routes, the new stores, the new services, the new everything...none of which was as nice as, as convenient as, as familiar as, as good as, or as ethnic as we could get in their hometown. *sighs*

One of the things that Mom appreciated about IC is that the speed limits were never over 35 mph, most posted limits in town are 25mph. She understood that Dad needed to run the Town Car on the interstate occasionally, and really appreciated that Kevin was the one to do that with Uncle Shorty. The drive to the VA was five minutes, rather than the two hours and five minutes it took him in MI. All of the stores are within fifteen minutes, as are all of Mom's doctors' offices. All in all, it's a much calmer driving environment for us all.

When he first arrived we applied for, and were granted, permanent handicap license plates. He also got the portable hanging card so that we could have access when we were using one of our vehicles to transport them. Uncle Shorty was a happy camper; the plates were blue and white and looked good on the car.

We found the local Square Dance Club meeting place, and Dad drove himself there a couple evenings a month. He drove Mom shopping almost every day. As his knee/hip continued to fail, Dad would drive, but wait in the car while Mom did the shopping. As his eyes began to fail, he was more comfortable being chauffeured around than when he first arrived. ...one of the toughest transitions we all had to make.

I don't recall when we finally got all of their belongings moved out of the garage so that the Town Car would fit inside...sometime after 2000, I think. The Town Car wasn't cheap to operate. By 2002, we had stashed it on the half-basketball court off da Lane where it remained until this year.

Late this summer, we got it ready for Carl to take home, as per Dad's wishes. He and Patty arrived last week to drive it home. Sensible change of plans put them on the train yesterday morning; we'll be shipping the vehicle in the next week or so.

This, then, is Shorty's Final Wish for the 1989 Town Car:



Delivery should be sometime in the next couple weeks.

May we all know such a ride!

*honks horn loudly*