My First Car, a Dooziemobile!
The photo above is a 1938 Chevy sedan at the Barrett-Jackson classic car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.. Mine was also a 1938 Chevy sedan, but nothing as nice as this one! Mine was a light greenish/whitish color with a pink dash board. All hand painted. With a brush! Barrett-Jackson wouldn’t allow it on their employee parking lot!
The radio worked, the heater worked (very important in Wyoming). The lights worked as did the single windshield wiper. For its day the car had incredibly nice riding suspension with the individual knee-action joints.
I paid Louie Stollins $25.00 for this magnificent “Dooziemobile,” my first car. When I showed my Dad my “new” car, he said, “It’s a doozie!” Instantly, I had a name for my car.
I was fifteen years old and failing in any thoughts to my growing-up in the little picturesque town of Saratoga, Wyoming. Something I’ve yet to accomplish. You know, the “growing up” thing…
Louie was likely sorry he sold me the car. As he would soon find himself cornered in the Platte Valley High School auto shop. I would plead for his help with the Dooziemobile.
There he helped me split the manifold then braise it to the new second exhaust pipe I had bought from Riverstreet Motors, the Chevy dealer in Saratoga. Amazing! in 1956 and they actually had a 1938 Chevy exhaust system in stock! They even had rear fender skirts. I had to have those as well.
I was determined to make that straight six Chevy motor sound like a monster engine with home-made glasspak mufflers. The sound was amazing! When I hear something like it t’day I’m tempted to swear in a complaint hopeful some cop will ticket the driver for disturbing the peace!
That ol’ car gave me and my pals some great pleasure. Until one day…
Some pals and I went antelope hunting in my Dooziemobile. Not long after getting to the area we expected to see game, we espied a large herd of Pronghorns. We were a few miles NE of Saratoga. I tried sneaking up close enough for a shot. This can be a difficult challenge with dual pipes and noisy mufflers alerting the antelope of great danger. Off they went! Off we went, chasing them. We were unrealistically hopeful for a shot at the Boone & Crocket buck leading the bunch.
Leaving the dirt road and bouncing across the sagebrush, we were gaining on them when BANG!💥 then another BANG 💥brought the Dooziemobile to a stop. Both, yup BOTH, knee-action front joints failed. Totally! Like a becalmed sailing vessel, we were “dead in the water!”
We sat in silence. The only movement was a desert “Horney Toad” scurrying off after sunning himself on a rock. Then we looked at one another, got out with some hope of a repair. There was none.
We simply shrugged our shoulders, grabbed our rifles and, perhaps, a few knapsack items. We then trudged back to town several miles away.
Likely, that ol’ car sits forlornly in the sagebrush where it ignobly lost its race with a magnificent buck antelope. Oh the memories that car provided. Some really terrific memories!