The Garage on Wellington

When I bought my house on Wellington Avenue in 1975, it came with a garage. A very old garage with barn doors instead of what we now call a proper garage door. Those doors were problematic when it snowed because you had to shovel all the snow out of the way to open them. So I really never kept my everyday transportation in that garage. Instead I looked upon that garage as an excuse to buy a series of things that I couldn't have if I was still living the life of an apartment dweller. First up, a well beaten 1966 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport convertible. This car was in such bad shape that the driver's seat was bolted to a couple of two by fours because the floor pan had rotted away. But I saw that car for sale on the side of the road and I had to have it. I enjoyed it for about one month before I realized it needed to go. I sold it to some Puerto Rican guy who test drove it down Lincoln Avenue at fifty miles per hour with me in the passenger seat, crapping my pants. I replaced the Chevy with a beautiful eighteen foot long, wooden sailboat. I saw that boat for sale on the side of the road and I had to have it. It just fit inside the garage if I opened the window at the back of the garage so that the mast could stick out. I took that boat out on Lake Michigan where I discovered it had the sailing characteristics of a pile of lumber strapped together with a sail attached. It didn't move very fast, and if the wind was under ten miles per hour it didn't move at all. I didn't use it much after the day the wind died out and I sheared a pin in the outboard motor. We were stuck a couple of miles out in Lake Michigan until a good Samaritan towed us back.

 So, I had the boat on one side of that old garage, but still had room for a car. Driving down an old country road one day outside Chicago I spotted the most beautiful 1955 Studebaker. It was for sale on the side of the road and I had to have it.

I now have a very nice garage with one of those automatic garage doors and room for two cars. If I get rid of a bunch of that junk that seems to have gathered on either side inside the garage, I'll bet I could fit a second vehicle in there. Maybe a nice antique Ford. They're small and wouldn't take up much room at all. You never know what I might find for sale on the side of the road.