Category: Every car is a story.
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THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
Have you ever seen a car for the very first time and thought to yourself, “Good Lord. How’d I miss this this? How many were ever made? What’s the story behind this thing?” I’m not talking about the first time you saw an AMC Gremlin. I mean a real, honest-to-God work of art automobile. One of those came through Fort…
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TALE OF THE COMET
When this 1962 Mercury Comet Custom Villager first showed up on Bring a Trailer in December of 2020, it was love at first sight. Normally a bastion of Porsches and BMWs, I loved the fact that this Villager was nestled right in the middle of them all on BaT. I snickered at the thought of…
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A RUSKIE AT THE DAIRY TWIN
‘Bout the last place you’d expect to see a GAZ 69 would be in Fort Stockton, but damned if there wasn’t one parked at the Dairy Twin a while back. No idea how it even got there. Manny, from Manny’s Motor Mart, the used car lot operating out of the former Unitarian Church across the…
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IT TAKES A VILLAGER
“Luck is the idol of the idle.” That’s what Skip Hall, Rex Hall’s cousin used to SAY. And yet, secretly he kept hoping that luck would find a way to even the playing field, or maybe even tilt it in his favor for a change. Skip felt like luck had been on his side when he convinced…
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A BEEFED UP VOLVO
Back about ’96 or ’97, Doctor Smuthers Holbein moved to Fort Stockton and brought a 240 wagon just like this one with him. He’d recently ‘retired’ from a tenured position at Abilene Baptist University where he taught Post Reformation European Romance Literature, followed his much younger girlfriend to the Fort, and looked for work once…
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JUSTICE FOR ALL
Henry Thornberry was an attorney here in Fort Stockton who drove one of these back in the day. He cut a dashing figure pulling up to the courthouse in the red and black Dodge, no one could argue. The contrast of his starched white shirt and mane of white hair with the merlot and ebony…
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RUG RATS AND RAT PACKS
Arch Finley was drawn to her because she was wild. Well, that’s not true, if we’re being completely honest. He was drawn to her because she was Lucinda’s roommate in college and he was drawn to Lucinda. When it became obvious that Lucinda was not ever going to reciprocate his feelings of love, or lust anyway, he settled…
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STARFIRE OVER ELDORADO
Clem Hoffstra came from nothing and was determined to make it big, no small dream in a town like Fort Stockton. Starting with small real estate acquisitions, then the mineral rights that were buried below them, Clem worked up a sizable fortune. Like many who go from rags to riches, however, the level of wealth…
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ALL HAT, NO HOLSTER
Brother Bob doesn’t like anyone to know, but he’s not originally from Texas, much less Fort Stockton. He was born and raised in Nebraska. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Nebraska. Good folks up there. Great food. The only state that has a unicameral government, making use of only one house of government rather than the two every other state has,…
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THE FIRE COACH AT STATION #2
This beauty is identical to the one Fort Stockton bought when they built Station #2 back in early 1965. Of course the town wasn’t really big enough to have two fire stations; they called it Fire Station #2 because the original fire station burned down. In an ironic twist of fate, a call came in…