The "Peeping Gangster Car" Story

It was an ordinary day. Reading the editorial page of the local newspaper and came across an article by Andy Rooney. Always enjoyed Andy when he gave commentaries on "60 Minutes." Read the article and realized it had nothing to do with any thing current. Then at the end of the article I realized that he had written it almost 20 years ago. Article was about the cars of yesteryear. He starts by saying that the auto industry always makes changes in its new models, but you don't realize the difference until about 10 years later. Says that the tail fins of the 60s didn't disappear overnight. He goes on to tell about the cars in the 30s and talks about the metal bar that was in front of the rear seats that held a blanket, since the rear seat never got any of the heat given off by the car's engine. Blanket was used to keep you warm on the cold winter days. He told about the windshield wipers that the driver had to twist with their hand to clear the rain. Also had to step onto a running board to enter the car and the trunk was so small that it held very little. The spare tire was on the running board. For years the radiator was exposed to sight and the ornament on the radiator was a distinguishing feature of the car. During the 30s the cars starting to have hoods that covered the radiator. Cars came with a crank that at times were needed to start the car. Wow! Then I remembered the '38 Plymouth that my next door neighbor on Queen Street had. I was maybe 13 or 14 at the time and he must have been in his 50s. Bob B. and his wife Deb lived in the other half of our semi-detached house. I still remember Bob for all the weights and dumbells he had in his basement. He was a weight lifter. They had no children or pets, but Bob took an interest in the guinea pigs that I raised in the back yard. Mom and dad said that seemed strange, but he seemed to be a nice guy. Today you would really worry about that if you had kids living next to a guy like that. Well, he had this neatest old car. He kept it parked in his garage at the rear of his house. Looked like a gangster car. Dark brown in color, it had headlights that stood up along the side of the large chrome grill. Running boards on both side of the car, but the spare tire was housed in the trunk. One of the first models to do that. Windshield wipers hung from the top of the window, but did have a small motor inside to power the blade. It was a four door with huge doors. Rear door handle was next to the front door handle and opened opposite as cars do today. Inside was immense with a lot of leg space in the rear of the car. No space in the trunk, since the spare was in there. How do I know so much about the car? Well, Bob eventually started raising guinea pigs and kept them in his garage! Mom and dad really thought that was strange!! He and I would drive in his car to the Lancaster Stock Yards which was about a 1/4 mile from our houses. We would take large burlap bags with us and collect the hay and straw from the floors of the barns into the bags to use as feed and bedding for the guinea pigs we raised. I can still remember the trips to the get hay and straw. NO ONE today would let their child get into a car with a weird neighbor!! Back in the 40s and 50s people just trusted each other more. Bags were so big that we filled his back seat and rear compartment with bag after bag. Stuffed them in. He filled his garage with cages and eventually had to keep his car outside his garage. Often wish I would have bought his car. I can still picture gangsters hanging onto the car, standing on the running boards, shooting it out with the law. Well, mom and dad were right. Bob was strange and weird. One night mom caught him staring in the windows in our living room. He was a peeping tom! They reported him, but never had him prosecuted. Our business kind of died after that. And shortly, so did Bob. Don't remember what killed him, but it wasn't mom and dad. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - car shown is how I remember Bob's car, except his car had 4 doors.