Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Seeing some of the cars on here today got me to thinking back to a story my bad influence/boss told me back when I was a teenager (I'm now 57).

When he was about twenty, back in the early 1970's, a lady called him and she had a big Packard 8 in her old wood garage, dual sidemounts, black, all original, had been parked since the 1950s. She told him he could have it if he could get it out of there. Obviously he was game for that.

The garage was packed full of junk and there was a huge oriental rug lying on top of the sedan. He got behind the car and pushed the rug off only to find a nest of bumble bees had made a home in the carpet! He ended up having to be rushed to the hospital covered with stings and spent several days there.

So, here's where it pays off. He was always a true car guy and he didn't like being in the hospital. A nurse woke him up and told him to eat his breakfast, apple juice and some other things, he didn't want it, went back to sleep. A little while later the nurse came in, woke him up again and demanded a urine sample and stomped out of the room. Irritated again, he took the apple juicee and poured it in the urine sample cup, rolled over and started to go back to sleep when she came stomping back in. She picked up the cup and said something to the effect of, "Well, that seemed mighty fast."

He had had enough, so, he took the cup from her and said, "Yeah, probably better run it through again," he took the top off and chugged it down! She ran out of the room yelling he was crazy and came back with a doctor.

Long story short, he got the Packard about two weeks later, kept it about half a dozen years, and I haven't seen it since about 1978, but, I'll never forget that story.