ASTRANTIA AND THE '57 CAME HOME FOR A VISIT

         

          Since I couldn’t remember the name of this plant, I decided to use the plant app, Plantnet, on my phone. According to that, this is Astrantia in the family of Apiaceae. Its common name is great masterwort. Based on my research, it’s probably Astrantia major “Star of Beauty.”  Why I never save those little plastic identifiers that come with plants I have no idea. I purchased a start a number of years ago at Sorticulture in Everett and it’s done very well in the location where I planted. It’s probably three or four times the size of the original plant and looks very nice on the edge of my water feature. 

          Today, Sunday, I got to experience a real treat. AJ and Haley came down in the ’57 Chevy pickup. It’s been many a year since this truck left my driveway and went to live at AJ’s house. I believe I’ve posted before how it became AJ’s when he turned 16, but that it took 30+ years before he actually sat behind the wheel and drove it on the street.

          There it came, cruising up the street as I was in front watering the flowerbed. AJ gave me a couple toots on the horn, went to the end of the street, came back and parked. I called John’s best friend Dave to tell him the ’57 was home. Of course, Dave had to come down, safely masked, to look it over and talk to AJ about what he and Haley had done in the way of restoration to date. Dave has restored a number of Cougars, so he speaks the lingo.

          John bought the ’57 the year we got married, so that would have been 1966. I believe it was blue when he bought it, but he had it painted the rust color it’s been since then. John drove it to and from work and I got to drive the “good” cars, i.e., 1965 Mustang, 1967 Chevy Malibu, and finally the 1971 VW Superbeetle, although John never liked the VW. One of these days I should try listing all the vehicles we owned in all our years of marriage. I do know in his later years, John deeply regretted not keeping the Mustang, Malibu and possible a couple of others. I certainly didn’t because our driveway was only so big and there was never a chance we’d end up on some farm where John could have kept everything he ever owned.

         

After the confab about the ’57, AJ and Haley did a couple of things for me and then AJ asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. Hell yes!!!! So, off we went, down the street and followed part of the route I usually walk. AJ went beyond, and then turned back. It was definitely fun to sit up high and watch the world go by. It was also fairly noisy.

         

I think the last time I rode in the ’57 was when John and I drove it to California because his good friend had left town without paying John for the four tires on his vehicle. John was just a tad pissed about that and was determined to go get either the tires or his money. Woohoo, a road trip.

          John’s mom came to stay with AJ, so it had to have been 45+ years ago when we did this. The truck had a new engine with practically no miles on it, so John expected a smooth trip. Well, it didn’t work quite like that. We got to around Olympia and the truck quit running. John went under the hood, messed about and then tried starting it. Woopee, it was back running. In this manner, we hiccoughed our way down I-5 to some town in northern California.

          John had tried a number of things to figure out the problem, but the truck would run for only so long and then it would stop. Wait a while and it would start up again. I can’t remember now if John talked to someone or just went in and bought a new fuel filter. If memory serves, the fuel filter had rust chips in it. As we drove, the rust chips slowly covered the exit from the fuel filter…no fuel, no go. Stop long enough for the rust to fall back down to the bottom of the fuel filter and we could mosey on down the road. A new fuel filter solved the recurring problem.

          Once in southern California, John was able to find his friend. It was late at night and I waited in the truck while John went inside the apartment building. He and his friend came back and began removing the tires from his friend’s vehicle. Suddenly, a police car showed up. John rather nonchalantly walked over to my window, handed me a gun and said, “Put this under the seat.” I almost fell over. I had no idea he was carrying.

          The two of them talked to the policeman who then left, and once the four tires were in the back of the ’57, we left. I immediately gave John a ration of shit for having the gun, especially since I didn’t know he did. I asked him, “What were you going to do if your friend didn’t return the tires or give you your money, shoot him?” John’s reply was a smile and “Maybe.”

          That was our last trip in the ’57. Even though it misbehaved for half the way down, we had a great time. This was at the height of our marijuana and speed use. There were so many things that were funny that might not have been if we had been straight. We also did some things that we probably would not have done if we hadn’t been high and moving fast. Still, I’ve some great memories from that trip and I wish I could share them here, but they're pretty private...hysterical, but private.

          Once we were back home, I’m not sure if the ’57 left the driveway again until it went to live at AJ’s. It may have, but nothing in particular comes to mind. I do have to admit though, that it was great to see it chugging along on the street and even better to be in the cab behind the engine that was doing the chugging. AJ doesn’t plan on doing a lot more to the ’57, but perhaps if I squirrel away some money designated just for that truck, once I’m gone, he can get it painted and fully restored. I would like that…John would LOVE that.