On The Road, Denver, Colorado: The Do You Remember It Edition?

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 18, 2011

When I was a kid back in the 1960's, I distinctly remember visits to my paternal grandmother's home while we resided in the Gateway to the West back in the day. At Moo's home, kids were better seen than heard and if we weren't seen at all, that was even better. As a result, thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan spent a lot of our visits to that Giles Avenue home in the dark and dank basement playing with some cool old toy cars while our sisters were upstairs in the parlor visiting with Moo and the folks.



One of the cool things about that house, other than my Uncle Frank's wide track Pontiac convertibles, was the fact my quite elderly grandmother was still sporting around in a 1953 Desoto Firedome, yes with a hemi. It was maroone with a grey cloth interior and the semi automatic transmission of the time. You used a clutch to get underway and stop but when it was time to shift gears, you just lifted off the accelerator and it shifted automatically. It was pretty fascinating at the time although I rarely rode in Moo's car back then, only to learn to drive it much later in life.  It was the same body style as the one in the above pictures. This olelongrooffan will never know how I came to be in possession of those images but I am sure they were saved so they could be utilized in this post.

Later, after it was determined that Moo was unable to drive herself any longer, that old MOPAR product, now extinct, came to reside on our Halltown edition of Haven Lee Farm.

One time an older sister, who had recently gotten her driver's license, and I were traversing some country road out in Lawrence County, Missouri, had to be 1971 or 72 and when we crested a hill, that gravel road also took a blind turn down to the left.  My sister over compensated and we bounced off the adjacent embankment severely damaging the left front quarter of the old beast, which had by now been painted a bright orange by one of TheGentlemanFarmer's buddies.

Well, needless to say, when we returned home, the proverbial sh*t hit the fan for a couple days and then it kind of blew over. And my Dad, in one of his many travels around the countryside, stumbled across a 1952 Desoto 4 door post sedan parts car and, of course, drug it home.  And it was a parts car for the repairs to Moo's car so this olelongrooffan could hoon it around for a while.

So by now this olelongrooffan is sure those of you Counting Along With Me are screaming at the tops of your lungs..."WTF longroof, you think we are here to reminisce the ole days with some dude who is hanging in the Rockies for the month?"

Whoa?...Where did that come from?....But I think it was pretty funny considering...

So anyway, this afternoon while out scoping out suppliers for this remodel project I am involved in and which solely represents the reason I am here.....anyway, until a couple days ago, life in the mountains had left me disoriented with respect to north/west/south, etc. "If you see the mountains, you are looking west." Yeah that's great if you can see the mountains!...sh*t where the h*ll was I?  Literally and Geographically.

Oh Yeah! So this olelongrooffan was out and about and on a street which I knew and in a location roughly where I thought I was and I spotted this while travelling north on Lowell.



Yeah, it's a 1952 Desoto Custom two door post.  Looks to be nearly original and I had to teach Filmore, the Vanagon, how this olelongrooffan likes to whip ueeeys just for this reason.



And in my world, seeing this old classic and not gathering some images to share is beyond my comprehension.



I mean Counters, when was the last time you saw a manufacturors name, trademark and design flair all on the same car?  H*ll not just the car, this was just the rear emblem.



So, I guess it is time for this olelongrooffan to put his foot in it again and share the absolute next image after the trunk emblem I captured.  Yeah, Klutz could be my middle name.



Having said all that, this sweet old beauty had the exact same transmission set up as did Moo's '53. I drove Moo's car (as it was known until the day it was sold) up and down that mile long driveway out at the farm many times to "check the mail" as it were.



That multi-toothed '53 sedan, the '53 turn signals were moved outward to the chrome in the fender and Chrysler was able to squeeze in a couple more teeth on each side, anyway...Moo's car would haul *ss, in the hands of a 16 year old Hoon and on a gravel road, well let's just say I had a couple Lightning McQueen incidents before this olelongrooffan met my Doc Watson.



To my mind, even the front emblem on this automobile is nearly asspectacular as the rear. This olelongrooffan would love to have one of those hanging from the wall of the Taj Mahal. Not this one though, it is in its proper location, hopefully forever.



I don't know if many of you Counters Out There follow we Hoons over in the Hooniverse.com but over there is a Mystery Car Contest, usually on Fridays...anyway, I thought about submitting it for a post in that category but those Hoons can guess a mystery car by its freaking shadow at night, so that image remains here on By The Numbers, for now.

After this olelongrooffan had gathered those images of that two door,



of course, I had to take a peek out back. The fun ones are a 54-55 Ford Ranch Wagon, a baby Jaguar of some indiscriminant designation, a couple beige vehicles, an early 70's Cutlass, what I'm gonna call a 50's era Olds and behind that Ford pickup was the nose of a '56 Chevrolet. It was quite a sighting, not unlike most days here in the Mile High City thus far.

But it was when I sneaked around the other corner and spotted this



ole flatfender to share with thejeepjunkie, the Kid and the Bus that this olelongrooffan really remembered how to

Celebrate Life.