Deuce Braxton went with his dad to pick up the Buick Electra he’d ordered six weeks earlier. Deuce was only five, but remembered the rest of his life seeing the ’63 convertible, top down, waiting for them at the dealership when they pulled up. Arctic white over red. Seemed as long as the driveway to the house from the Farm to Market road they lived on.
It seemed to take hours for the paperwork to be finalized, but time drags to a five-year-old. Times being completely different back then, his dad let him stand up on the leather seat next to him for the whole ride home. It was in late October and someone on the radio was talking about the president coming to Texas the following month. “Is he coming to Fort Stockton?” Deuce asked.
“Not if he can help it, I’m sure,” his dad laughed.
His dad kept the car rather than trade it in three years later. Kept it covered in the barn for when Deuce turned sixteen. It was the last convertible he’d buy and he wanted his only son to have it. Turning 15, Deuce counted down the 365 days that followed till the Electra would be his. Once it was, he drove it in Homecoming Parades and Pioneer Days events. Even pulled the Rotary Club float for Thanksgiving in 1974. Everyone in town recognized the Buick, wherever it might be. That proved to be a double edge sword for a good looking young man in his late teens.
Deuce drove it off to Rice University in ’76. Mechanically it was perfect. Cosmetically it had begun to show signs of age. The patina had no effect on the Buick’s ability to serve as the ‘white horse’ to Deuce’s ‘knight in shining armor’ ability to woo women. The Buick was the perfect compliment to the bright blue eyes and thick blond mane Deuce possessed that coeds in Houston simply couldn’t resist. His room mate at Rice once proclaimed “Deuce got more butt than a toilet seat”, the Buick doing its part to make that metaphor a statement of fact.
Returning unexpectedly to town a year before graduation, Deuce was thrust into full adulthood earlier than planned due to the sudden death of his father and the need to take over the family business in ’79. The Electra convertible went back into the barn and was covered up, too many memories to let go. Deuce returned to the same dealership and bought a new Electra sedan. It was the adult thing to do.
He didn’t date much, didn’t have time. The convertible ventured out of the barn only occasionally. Life got busy. Deuce never married. He hired an attractive Guatemalan girl to keep the house and help with meals. He joined the Rotary Club and became its president by the time he was 30, but never pulled the float with the old Buick. Those days were long gone.
Folks were surprised to see the ’63 Electra around town again back around 2008 or so. Still ran like a top, but the paint was starting to tell stories that should have been kept secret. Locals were most surprised to see who was driving it. Delgado, the short order cook over at The Grounds for Divorce, was behind the wheel. His mother had been the housekeeper for Deuce, who’d taken a shine to the boy from an early age. Ended up gifting him the Buick for graduation.
Ladies said Delgado made the Buick look good. Of course, his deep blue eyes, rare for a Guatemalan kid, certainly didn’t hurt.
