My love affair with cars began at the early age of 5 with my dad's 1964 Chevy Impala convertible. I LOVED going for rides with the top down. Dad always said, "If you can't go with the top down, don't go!" I learned years later, that it was only because the top didn't actually work! In addition to the Impala, my dad had a "project car" parked out back of my grandmother's house. She was a 1952 Cadillac convertible, but she needed work. Any time we were at gram's house, I'd make it a point to sit in the driver's seat and pretend I was driving her!

Fast forward to 15 years old, my gram's 1975 Dodge Dart Sport had an electrical fire. No major damage, but the entire wiring harness was melted away. She parked it at our house and I took on the challenge of getting her back on the road. I bought the Haynes Manual, went to the local junkyard and pulled a wiring harness out of a '75 Plymouth Valiant, and started the tedious process of matching the color coded wires to their burnt-to-a-crisp, counterparts. LOTS of soldering and the entire summer/fall later she was ready to go! I walked to the gas station with the lawnmower gas can for 2 gallons of gas, I "borrowed" the battery from my mom's car and on the very first turn of the key, she started right up!!! I turned 16 over the winter and drove my Dart all over!

At that same time I, along with my best friend, worked for the local Funeral Parlor, maintaining their fleet of limos, station wagons and hearses. We washed, waxed, cleaned, polished, vacuumed, and kept the cars in beautiful condition. This job also allowed us to do the same for our own cars, making sure they were also spotless. But, the BEST part of the job was that the owner, kept his 1976 Triumph TR6 at another local funeral home that they owned. Every Friday, he'd toss us the keys to take a station wagon over to the other funeral home and bring back his TR6, making sure it was washed, waxed fueled and ready for him to take "down the shore" for the weekend. He generally gave us the keys around noon and expected to leave around 4, giving us several hours to put the little sports car thru its paces. I believe WE put more miles on the car than he did! It was then that I fell in love with the "Little British Sports Car." All these years later and I'm still good friends with the owner Many years after our joy rides, I shared this story with him, assuming he had no idea of our antics. Much to my surprise, he knew ALL about our Friday missions and was happy that he could get us excited about cars.

When I returned from college, all I could think about was getting an LBC. The TR6 had been sold, and I learned that unfortunately they were out of my price range anyway. BUT, I happened upon a BEAUTIFUL, Tahiti Blue Triumph Spitfire and fell in love with her. Rose Marie was my first and I STILL have and drive her to this day, some 30+ years later.

While she was my first, anyone with an LBC knows that you need at LEAST one parts car. That was the "start" of my collecting. Buying cars and tools became my "thing" and I was hooked. My collection has been as many as 42, but generally is kept around 20-some. You will often find me and my crew at local car shows and you can see some the collection at :

http://www.heritageclassics.org

Finally, for the past 20 years, every Wednesday night, I host "Shop Night." Anywhere from 4 to 20+ friends meet at my shop and enjoy. We spin wrenches, do minor maintenance projects, eat, drink and have GREAT conversations, MOSTLY about cars. It's a fantastic way to spend a weekday evening!!!

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!