Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

You'd think I could start this thread with a boffo story of my own. Unfortunately I don't have a real good one. Except the night the lights went out. Lonely dark country road (cue music) and suddenly for no reason ALL the lights went out except the direction signals, by which you could "blink" your way along. Suddenly, miles later, all the lights came on again.

Just like when someone said something bad about Christine.

I hope contributions will include hair-raising maneuvers, racy adventures, happy coincidences, bewildered cops, as well as the occasional paranormal experience.

OK, I'll jump in to start this off.

When I bought my 55 Pat in Jan 1999, I drove it from Portland, OR to las Vegas, NV, a trip of 1,100 miles. The old guy I bought it from was only the owner for a couple of months as he had bought it on spec from the long-time owner. Anyway, he, the current owner, knew zip about Packards. So, he happily informed me that it had a new battery which he had installed.

Little did he know that he had connected both the previous battery and the current battery negative ground, rather than the (then) required positive ground. I did not know that much about Packards at that time, so, I just passed it off. Besides, the AMP gauge showed "charge", not "discharge", so the electrics had to be OK, right?

Some 900 miles later rolling into Barstow, CA at 9PM, the head lights were dimmed to almost non-existence. The short version of this story is that I limped into an 24-hr Wal-Mart after a couple of battery jumps from passersby. I bought a new battery. Then I vaguely remembering that 55 Packards were positive ground, I hooked it up that way, rather than negative. The rest of the trip to Las Vegas was a non-event, with the headlights bright.

The "Packard Guardian Angel" part is that had the battery depletion happened, say, 50 miles to the East, then I would have been in the middle of the freakin Mojave Desert in Death Valley in the middle of the night!!! Goodness only knows what the outcome of that would have been.

I believe that it still has a guardian angel named "Packard" overlooking it and me. To wit, 3 failures of BTV and a few other "adventures." But not a nick on it nor me.

Craig

Thanks, Craig. Sounds like a nice candlelight cruise!

I have been a passenger when a T/V went out, but that does not quite qualify as a strange or weird experience in a Packard. However, surviving 3 of them certainly does. Is it an angel on your shoulder or a lady with a donut?

ok. i'll add one tho not really too wierd.

My 56 Exec was the last car that some old man over in Nashville bought NEW. It went to a relative and then to mee several decades later.

About 1999 i removed the rear seat from my Executive to wire up some speakers. Found a pack of Marlboro with about 3 cig's left in the pack. In haste i just threw the pack in the glove box and continued to work.

The Marlboro package did not have the warning label on the side which would put it about 1975 or earlier. I forgot the pack in the glove box. A few weeks went by and i was traveling a desolate hiway 48 between Clarksvegas and Whiskey Hell. Late at nite and rather cold i discovered i was out of cigarettes. No sign of any open markets in site.

I magically remebered the pack in the glove box but thot to myself: " naw, they have to be all dried out and terrible to smoke". A few miles went by and i gave in.

I figured, what the F---, i was driveing the last car that the old man ever owned so i mite as well smoke his last cigarette too. And so i did. One of the finest smokes i've ever had.

I'm sure that the old man didn't care and had he known, he would have probably left me a pinch bottle, a pic of his grand daughter and her phone number under the seat too for the many years later to pass.


OR, in the immortal words of Winston Churchill, "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigarette is a smoke".

That's a great, great story! Not weird, but very cosmic. Could've been the start of a fine Twilight Zone episode. A real special "Packard moment."

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I would say that's memorable, and maybe a bit spooky too.

This isn't too weird either, but I think "memorable" fits. I remember vividly the last times I drove a '55 Packard 400 and a '55 Clipper Custom. The 400 was a short cruise with a girlfriend, or rather friend who was a girl, the summer after we graduated from HS. I thought it would be a treat. It was fun, but a little noisy (broken exhaust) and the power steering only worked in one direction. So it was a little work, but worth it on an early summer evening. It accelerated, braked and drove just fine.

The last time for the Clipper (pictured) was on the same stretch of blacktop with my dad and another fellow. Just a nice cruise. Neither time did I know it would be the last.

I went to college the next fall in a '65 Electra, which was a nice ride but no Packard. My brother had driven the 400 in his last year of HS and his freshman year at college. After that, the Packards stayed close to home and were up for sale.

I was hoping someone would say "I once filled the tank on my Packard for less than $5 bucks... in 1962" Lol.

Ok, not weird, but how about...

Impressing your "date" at the drive-in movie where you and her are slumped down in the large front seat doing whatever and could no longer see the movie screen (as if you cared). One could just flip the T-L "down switch to move the movie screen back up into view in case the "movie police with flashlights" came by.

I did this many times during High School and it allowed me to "get to first base" with --who shall remain unnamed".

Craig

" --who shall remain unnamed". "

Only because u can't remeber her name???? GUFAW-hahahaha.

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Gee, I was trying to be polite. But, it was your SISTER, Keith!</p>
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Craig
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