By the Time I Got to Woodstock

 

I had a great morning yesterday. I got to drive out to Woodstock, Illinois for the first time in forty five years. I used to have a job in the 1970s delivering supplies to shoe repair shops, and one of my stops was in Woodstock. It was a beautiful drive that I always enjoyed. It made my job very tolerable driving out into the countryside like that. Forty five years makes a big difference. For one thing, now I was able to buy gasoline for five dollars and two cents a gallon in Woodstock, instead of the forty nine cents per gallon I would have paid in 1976. Considering the price at the gas station a block from my house is five dollars and twenty nine cents, it was a bargain. Also, the quaint two lane highway that ran from the tollway north through farm country was now six lanes wide with strip shopping centers and housing developements most of the way.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. It was awful to see the countryside I remembered turned into another sprawling suburb of Chicago. Like I told my dad when I was a teenager, just before he slapped me, "We're over populating the planet!" However, here's the good part of the story. Just before the town of Woodstock, I turned off onto a very rural two lane highway. About a mile in, I turned up a gravel driveway to the home of a guy named Ken. At the end of that driveway was a very large garage with a few Ford Model A's parked outside. I was returning a tool Ken had loaned me. What I didn't expect was the tour he soon led me on. It was heaven. He had a parts room, a machine room, an antique collection room that was stuffed with some wonderful, oddball old crap. He took me around and showed me the cavernous garage filled with Model A's, a Model T, and best of all, a Model AA bus that he and a bunch of other guys are rebuilding from the frame up.  I know, it all sounds kind of nerdy and boring, but I left there feeling very happy. I now know a guy. A guy who knows Ford Model A's. Oh, and one last thing. He gave me three little parts for my car. Nothing fancy or expensive, but still, he gave them to me. Wouldn't take money for them. We are stardust, we are golden.