spridgets
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: My sad story

To: "Mark Hineline" <hineline@helix.ucsd.edu>, "Spridgets" <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: My sad story
From: Larry Macy <macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 13:06:55 -0400
Reply-to: Larry Macy <macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu>
Sender: owner-spridgets@autox.team.net
What happened to the Midget in storage that you quite paying rent on??

Larry M??

>>>>On 10/7/99 10:04 AM so and so (Mark Hineline) said. (And I quote:)

>I bought my first and only Midget in 1980. It was a 1970, maroon paint 
>over BLG. And it was a basket case. I got it running and after many 
>near-disasters got it to daily driver status.
>
>Example of a disaster: It came with four wire wheels, no spare. Octagon 
>knock-offs on one side, wings on the other. One of the wheels wasn't from 
>a midget and was too shallow for the hub, so I fashioned a spacer out of 
>steel rod and put it in the knock-off. That worked well, but it wasn't 
>fool proof. One night, about 2 am, it decided to come off and send the 
>wheel careening into someone's front yard. I had a jack, but not enough 
>clearance to use it, so I liberated a piece of split rail fence and 
>levered it up enough to get the jack underneath.
>
>On the other hand, it only stranded me once, when the clutch wore out. 
>Only time I had to have it towed. Everything else I fixed on the road or 
>"coped" with.
>
>I took it apart twice, for rust repairs and big maintenance, but I had in 
>the meantime acquired a '67 MG 1100 sedan that was eating up all my time, 
>money, and patience. In 1988, knowing that I would be relocating from 
>Maine to California, I tried once more to get as much work done on both 
>cars as possible so as to drive them West. Suffice to say that I still 
>had a body shell and a tub, unencumbered by any additional automotive 
>parts whatever, 36 hours before my hour of departure (midnight, 1 July, 
>1988). I had lost all grip on reality. My patient but realistic wife 
>somehow pried my mind loose and convinced me that I should find storage 
>facilities for the cars and my tools, at once. Which I did.
>
>After five years, though, I stopped paying the rent on the space and gave 
>up the ghost. Which after all was sensible, since I could find a 
>rust-free and unbent Midget with four correct wheels and a spare for less 
>than I payed out in storage rent over the five year period. 
>
>(Here's where I confess to unorthodox behavior: I bought a '76 VW bus, 
>rebuilt the strange motor, and camperized it. Guess I'm not a purist.)
>
>Anyway, on Monday a Midget cut me off in traffic. It was the first Midget 
>I have seen on San Diego freeways. Looked great. So I search altavista 
>for a list and here I am. 
>
>Mark Hineline
>1976 owner-camperized Volkswagen transporter named Peregrine
>1982 Volvo 245 GL
>1986 Saab 900S
>(This space available for a Midget)


Larry Macy
78 Midget

Keep your top down and your chin up.

Larry B. Macy, Ph.D.
macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu
System Manager/Administrator
Neuropsychiatry Section
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania
3400 Spruce St. - 10 Gates
Philadelphia, PA 19104

 Ask a question and you're a fool for three minutes; do not ask a 
question and you're a fool for the rest of your life. 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>