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Growing up in the small Interlake community of Vogar MB in the 1960's was quite an experience for this kid. There were alot of fast 50's cars around and being forty miles from the closest RCMP station made it a general picnic for all us hooligans. I think it (the '59 bug) began in '67 when Ralph Pelletier (my mentor) purchased a very fast '59 Galaxie 312-4V. I was only 14 at the time but I was entranced. |
I would go through tons of magazines at school looking for pics of '59 Fords, or just wait till I heard Ralph coming from a distance and drool as he went flying by. When Mom and Dad would go to the city (about three times a year), I would beg to go, just to get a glance at a passing '59 Ford. Dad would say, "you're 59 Ford crazy", truer words were never spoken Dad. He promised me, "you work hard on the lake (commercial fishing) and we'll see about a 59 Ford in the spring" I never worked so hard in my life..
Sure enough, in the spring of '69 (I was 16) Dad came back from Winnipeg with a '59 Fairlane Custom Fordor, it had a six in it but I was in heaven. I knew where there was a teardrop hoodscoop that I bought for 15 bucks and promptly installed it. Along with the front bumper removed, sex lights under the dash, a rear speaker for my AM radio, I was hot!....at least I thought so. After logging approx 3.5 million miles on the one mile stretch of gravel through our town, my dreams came apart. The sickening sound of a connecting rod and the sight of the brightly lit "oil light" sent this kids ego right past the big planet Mercury.
Now, here we are some 35 years later, trying to re-live our youth. All I wanted was to restore a nice '59 Ford and enjoy our evenings and weekends cruising. I found this old car in western Arkansas through an add in Hemmings Magazine (this was before internet), we then spent seven years restoring it to what you see here today. We have a brand new fully optioned '59 Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable now, .......I still can't believe it.........I count my blessings every day.
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