For Alpine content:
My 1966 Series V wasn't for sale when I bought it. I'd seen it parked on the
street in front of a house about 5 miles from where I lived, and couldn't
tell if it never moved or if the fellow always parked it in the same place.
The answer came about a month after a heavy snowfall - it stayed plowed in
all month. Turned out he was the original owner, it was now a 3rd or 4th car
that very seldom got used. A little persuasion and he agreed to sell it to
me - I still have it, and always will.
Now, a more unusual Humber story:
I was sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon, the wife was off visiting her
sister for the day. Nothing better to do, I reached for the classified
section of the local paper. Leafing through, I saw the "Antique Autos"
section, and glanced through it. An ad caught my eye, and I had to read it 3
or 4 times before I belived it - "1961 Humber Super Snipe - 4 door, 6
cylinder, automatic. Needs some work, $1350 or best offer". Now, mind you,
I'd been looking for a Humber for over 10 years at that point, and here was
one in my local paper!! Once I retieved my lower jaw from the floor, I
called, but nobody was home. Darn. But, this was the computer age, so I
fired up my lightning-fast 75mhz pc, and used a reverse phone directory to
find the address. It was 3 miles from our apartment! I figured they might
have a "for sale" sign on it, so even if nobody was home, I could take a
peek and still appear legitimate. So, off I went to investigate. The car was
there, but no "for sale" sign, and it was quite far from the street. I
couldn't believably explain my presence if the owner should happen to return
while I was looking, so I returned home to leave a message on their
answering machine.
Once I met the fellow, and he saw what I was driving, (a certain creaky
Cricket now belonging to Jan Eyerman, that when I owned it, carried
personalized New Jersey license plate "ROOTES"), he said that if he had ever
seen me on the road, he would have followed me to talk to me. I most
certainly would have followed him had I ever seen his Humber. He had lived
there 5 years, just as long as we had been in our apartment. In all that
time, we just never crossed paths.
Needless to say, it is now MY Humber. And, it will be carrying me to Tipp
City, Ohio for the Invasion!
Jon Arzt
Omaha, NE USA
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