JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: The Door in the Wall

The Door in the Wall

By Dave Waddell

14 May 2008

There are 3 cars in this photo and if you look hard you may see through the windshield of the grey one a single image of a man half turned aside in shyness. He is the collector.

The grey car to the right is a 1928 Ford Touring. Nice car.....He and I pulled that one out of a farmer's bush where it was sitting so long it was covered with leaves, debris and bird droppings. The car was wide open and the old canvas top was mildewed and rotten and hanging in ribbons. I remember trying to impress Brad by bunching up my fist and thumping that long sloping fender. The steel in those old cars was heavier than today's and the sound was a dull thump. I'm certain Brad spent a couple of thousand hours on that car. An off-frame restoration, all original parts wherever possible. What you are looking at is a 42 yr old restoration waiting to go out for one more parade.

The car with the yellow light was a gift from a friend. When he first got the car he took me out for a spin in her and that little roadster hit 92 mph. There we were with the top down and going like hell. That's a 1934 soft top Ford V8 roadster in original condition. I remember my older brother telling me that one winter Brad took his old car down the north hill sideways top to bottom on the ice and finally got the car back under control just in time to fly over the bridge at the river.

That old blue car over at the door with the beer cases on her running board is a 1933 Chevrolet sedan in original condition.

In the time I've know Brad he's owned hundreds of cars and he can remember details about almost every one. I have always wondered "How the hell did you get this way, man"! The strange thing is, I don't think he knows himself, exactly. Maybe you just see something and you like it. Like a guy looking at a woman, you are charmed and then you're done for.