Chapter 70

I'm not trying to say that the Alphabet Soup wasn't unhappy with us. They were. But we were mostly innocent of any wrong doing ... mostly.

They really didn't like kids well versed in their constitutional rights, and tried the old trick:

"If you don't have anything to hide, you should talk to us."

"Daddy, here are the names, times, dates and badge numbers of the Agents who don't believe in the Constitution."

They REALLY didn't like that.

Alaska was soon overflowing with Agents who were violating the Law. The needs of the service. Icepucky ... the need to learn to be polite. Because of it we hadn't had time to buy Grace a '57 Chevrolet.

We had a month break between Quarters. The day before Thanksgiving until the day after the New Year.

The Quarter system was 12 weeks each, that left a month, but Summer Quarter was split into two intense 3 week sessions. Sure there were people who went to summer school ... but the classes were small.

It was time ... and I wanted something special for me. For that we had to go to Janesville, Wisconsin.

I wouldn't have needed to go to Janesville if it weren't for car salesmen who knew what they wanted me to buy better than I knew what I wanted. But, the few who would actually let me tell them what I wanted were really sure I didn't want that but look at this model over here. What I learned by looking at the bottom line on the windowsticker told me what I had to do. No ... not the price line ... below that. The line that read MADE IN U.S.A. at the GENERAL MOTORS PLANT in JANESVILLE WISCONSIN That line.

There we invaded the GM Truck plant. I didn't want much. I just wanted them to take a 1957 Chevrolet 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup frame and running gear and stick it under a 1957 Suburban two door body ... and I wanted the 250 hp fuelie 283 in place of the stuck in the mud 265. I waved money as I came in the door.

"We can do that," said the General Assembly Floor Supervisor. "Why didn't you order it from the dealer?"

"Believe me, I tried,"

"What happened?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm 15," I said. "In most places the head salesman wouldn't even see me. The dealerships that would see me kept telling me I didn't want that."

"Did you flash a loaded wallet here when you came in door?"

"Yes."

"My secretary is highly impressed with money," he grinned. "You should have done that at the dealers," he opened a drawer and took out an order form and started filling in the blanks.

"3/4 ton 4x4," he said.

I nodded.

"283."

A nod.

"Fuel Injection."

"Uh huh."

"Bench or Buckets?"

"Buckets. Bench in the back. Two rows, not three."

"Wheels?"

"15."

"Tires?"

"Mounted 820x15 six ply mud and snows and a full set of mounted 710x15 highway tires. Can you get them in Michelin radials?"

"Why do you want radials?"

"Safety."

"I guess ... let me check." He picked up a phone and waited. "Susie? Boardwalk please. Thanks."

The Boardwalk is in a room with all the tires offered by dealers as options. There are huge stacks of tires that are shipped in by the railcar load by size. The boardwalk is made of hardwood slats that are on a continuous chain. A crew of men load the tires on the boardwalk according to a print out that dealers send in. The matching wheels are on a continuous setup of their own. The wheels pass into a paint room and are spraypainted in sets. In the next operation the wheels go into a bake cycle and come out with the paint hard ... real hard. There is a man, who has his own printout, who checks the tire size with the wheel size. The tires and the wheels are fed into a machine that remotely mounts them ... and the paint and tire better match because they drop into the assembly line and the color of the body and the color of the wheel had better match! Things were much easier when the only color was black.

"Hey ... you guys got any Michelin radials?"

"820x15's and 710x15."

"You do? For what?"

"State Police?"

"You mount them on truck rims?"

"See ya."

"Thank you Susie."

He turned to me as he hung up, "Yes."

"Color?"

"That deep red."

That put him in the desk again.

He showed me #2007, "This one?"

"No, #2009. That's purty."

"Interior?"

"Something that won't fry my cheeks in the summer."

"Leather. A nice matching red?"

"Sure."

"Radio?"

"Yeah, heater, door panels, can I get it without side windows?"