Car History

Posted by Jim L. in OR On 2013/6/27 18:46:09

Hi Gang!

I've been away for a while with medical issues. I won't go into a lot of detail other than saying if any of you over 50 haven't had a blood PSA or a Prostate Exam (also known as The Finger MAKE THE DAMN APPOINTMENT! I waited three years and found the biggest lie about Prostate Cancer: It is all very slow growing. I went from lower to usual numbers to stage four in three years. There is no stage five. Fortunatly, the doctors feel very confident they got it all (I certainly hope they're right) so don't expect any Packard Estate Sales any time soon.

It is an ill wind that blows no good as the saying goes and belive it or not, so good came out of the afore mentioned mess. I was getting a perscription filled and as I was leaving the drive up pharmacy in my '55 there was a guy who had been standing and staring the whole time I was in line and who now began to wave me down. I rolled down the window and the first words out of his mouth were: "I used to own this car!". The guy in back of me was stuck waiting like I was so he was able to give me a little bit of history but we got together thru Portlandon, who is the member of this organization that told me about this same Packard almost 3 years ago.

Anyway according to Randy, the car was sold new to a wealthy woman who lived on an old estate outside Olympia, Washington. She drove it sparingly until around 1964; afterwhich it never left the carriage house!
It sat there until around 1972 with 33,000 miles or so on the odometer when she died. Her son, who lived in Oregon inherited the car and made several trips to Olympia to get it running again. Well, he got it running but the exhaust system decided to stay with the carriage house floor (what a fun drive to Portland THAT must have been). The son proceeded to clean it up, made easier by mom having the dealer put clear plastic seat covers on the seats. About a year later, Randy traded a '65 Lincoln for it. He drove it for a year or so and sold it to somone in Oregon City.

So, All that's left is to fill in the gap between 1974 and 1980.

I know how frustrating tracking down a history of a car can be but as this shows, never give up for it my just pop up out of the blue when you least expect it!

PS. Excuse any spelling errors as I can't seem to get the Spell Check to work.