When I was about 11 there was a guy in the next town that had (still has) a '32 5 window, full fendered with a 3x2bbl nailhead. It was a very nice dark blue and he took it to all of the indoor car shows in the area. Once when it was sitting up at the Texaco we were drooling over it and he said he would have it in the car show in Ft. Wayne. We begged my dad to take a bunch of us and I'll never forget the site of chrome and candy colors we saw when we first walked in the door. I instantly switched from model planes and ships to model cars. This was probably 1960.

The other cars in my town that had a major influence were a black '39 Ford Deluxe 2 door that was original except for the lowering and a '55 Chevy 265 with Vette dress up goodies that later became my first car in 1964 and a chopped/channeled and shortened bed '32 pickup with a DeSoto hemi with an Almquist Y and 2 97s. This truck was maroon and only had a windshield glass and a board over the seat risers to sit on. It was one the the most painful and memerable rides of my life when I was 15..

Tom