Cars that I remember

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="09f506e1egerbq.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#339900" FACE="Arial" ><B>Our Family History</B></FONT><B> </B><B> </B><B> </B><B> </B><B> </B><B>|    </B><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Family History"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id105.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="HOMELESSNESS"><U>HOMELESSNESS</U></A>   |   Cars that I remember   |   <A HREF="id248.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IRANIAN NUCLEAR THREAT"><U>IRANIAN NUCLEAR THREAT</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id247.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MEXICAN CITIZENSHIP"><U>MEXICAN CITIZENSHIP</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id249.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BAILOUT"><U>BAILOUT</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id250.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WHED DO YOU WANT TO PAY YOUR TAXES"><U>WHED DO YOU WANT TO PAY YOUR TAXES</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id251.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="U.S. MILITARY POSTURE"><U>U.S. MILITARY POSTURE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id252.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WHO AM I?"><U>WHO AM I?</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id254.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CAMPS"><U>CAMPS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id255.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CLIFFS SUGGESTIONS"><U>CLIFFS SUGGESTIONS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id256.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Life After Life"><U>Life After Life</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id257.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EVOLUTION"><U>EVOLUTION</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id258.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SIMPLE SOLUTIONS"><U>SIMPLE SOLUTIONS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id260.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="AN ARMY OF CONVICTS"><U>AN ARMY OF CONVICTS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id261.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A COLONY ON MARS"><U>A COLONY ON MARS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id297.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dominick Granelli, Ghost or Spirit "><U>Dominick Granelli, Ghost or Spirit      (formerly called Haunted Hotel)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id310.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="last page"><U>last page</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#339900" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id104.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CLIFFS NOTEBOOK HOME"><U>CLICK HERE</U></A> TORETURN TO CLIFF'S NOTEBOOK HOME PAGE</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#99CC00" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Cars that I remember</div> <div> Standard;VEHICLES THAT I REMEMBER</div> <bR> <div> Since November 1954</div> <bR> <div> By Cliff Roehr, Pahrump, Nevada</div> <div> March 7, 2007</div> <bR> <div> When La Vonne and I were married on November 26, 1954 neither of us had a car. We immediately moved in to an apartment near Sea-Tac which was closer to La Vonne's job in Seattle than it was to Fort Lewis, where I was stationed as a private, cook in the Army. I bought a <A HREF="id110.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="46 PONTIAC OUR FIRST CAR"><U><B>1946 Pontiac </B></U></A><B>(1)</B>, a huge old sedan with bad rods. Shortly it threw a rod and was abandoned along the road, never to be seen again. I ended up hitch hiking to Fort Lewis for a few days or maybe a month, I just don't remember. La Vonne had to walk about a half mile to the highway and take the bus into Seattle. She had to leave the apartment very early, before daylight to make connections and get to work on time most days in the rain.</div> <bR> <div> I do remember that La Vonne shortly left her job at Hullen-Terminal Warehouse and got hired at Fort Lewis as a typist at post headquarters. I made PFC and we moved to a small apartment in Parkland, Washington, near South Tacoma. Somehow I acquired a <A HREF="id107.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1940 CHEVROLET... THIS WAS NOT OUR CAR "><U><B>1940 Chevrolet </B></U></A><B>(2)  </B>which didn't last long either, maybe a month or two before it crapped out. We then somehow managed a <A HREF="id266.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1950 English Austin"><U><B>1950 English Austin (3</B></U></A><B>). </B>This is the car that I taught La Vonne to drive in. I wrecked the side of it coming back from a trip to Bremerton, Washington to visit La Vonne's relatives. I took the car out to the Body Shop at Fort Lewis and pounded out the worst of the dents then we drove the Austin in wrecked condition for several months. This was in 1955.</div> <bR> <div> Then I conned my mother and her husband Ed into co-signing for a $500.00 loan at Household finance so we could put a down payment on a <A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U><B>new (1)</B></U></A><A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U><B>1955 Pontiac</B></U></A><A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U><B>(4</B></U></A><B>) </B>basic 2 door sedan after the 56's had already come out, so that must have been late in 1955. We paid $2,850.00 for the Pontiac. Our payments were $86.95 per month which was about one third of our income. We drove that Pontiac until shortly before I got out of the Army in April 1977 then let some guy take over payments and give me a two tone green <A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U><B>1951 Chevrolet</B></U></A><A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Pontiac"><U><B>(5</B></U></A><B>)</B> with a bad Power Glide Transmission but it got us around while La Vonne took off work to give birth to Steve and I found a job at the Washington Natural Gas Company in Tacoma, reading gas meters. Once the Chevrolet transmission gave out we somehow obtained a <A HREF="id270.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1954 Hillman"><U><B>1954 Hillman Minx (6)</B></U></A> a real cute little 2 Door Sedan. We would probably have driven that car for a long time but when Steve was born and old enough to travel we wanted to move to Littlerock, California where I had a job waiting, working for my mothers husband, Ed Norris, in his Liquor store. The Hillman would not pull a trailer so I swapped it for a green <A HREF="id271.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1955 Packard"><U><B>1952 Packard Caribbean (7)</B></U></A>, massive 4 door sedan. This had to be June 1957. The trip to California in that old Packard was miserable. It was June and hot. Of course we did not have air conditioning and Steve was only a little over a month old. He sat up in the front seat between us most of the time. In Lee Vining California our alternator went out and we had to stay in a motel for a couple nights while they ordered a new one for us.</div> <bR> <div> Ed's Liquor Store was right on the line between Palmdale and Littlerock. Rent was cheaper in Littlerock so we rented a one bedroom house from an old man named Burson. He had a couple acres and had built 3 or 4 small rentals on his property besides his own house. We didn't need the big Packard anymore since we had returned the rental trailer that we moved in. Within 2 months we were lured into LA by an attractive TV ad and traded the Packard in on a <A HREF="id272.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="56 Chevrolet"><U><B>1956 Chevrolet</B></U></A><A HREF="id272.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="56 Chevrolet"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id272.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="56 Chevrolet"><U><B>(8)</B></U></A> straight 6, it was brown and tan and quite attractive. It had 40 some thousand miles on it and lots of mechanical problems which we had to take care of. It got significantly better gas mileage than the Packard but I cant remember why that mattered as gas was only selling for about 29 cents a gallon.</div> <bR> <div> My stint working for Ed Norris and his partner Ernie at the Liquor Store lasted less than a year before business fell off to the point that they had to let me go in order for the business to survive. While I was employed there working the evening shift two armed men entered the store and held me up at gunpoint. As luck would have it La Vonne had gone somewhere that evening and left baby Steve in a bassinet which I had set on the floor in the back storeroom of the store. The holdup men herded me to the back of the store and were standing with their gun held right over Steve's bassinet. My mom and Ed lived in an apartment connected to the store behind the storeroom. As soon as the robbers left I shot out the back door to their apartment. The holdup men had disabled the phone in the store but my mom's phone was still working ok. We called the L.A. County Sheriff's office immediately and told them we had been held up. The officer in Lancaster station who took the call said I know, we already have the culprits in custody. It seems that a Sheriff's car was just pulling into the store parking lot when the bad guys ran out and jumped into their car and the driver sped away. This looked suspicious enough to warrant pulling them over and arresting them when they found the money bag in the front seat. In addition to the two that came into the store there was a third man who remained behind the wheel of their car as the driver. As a result of this incident I had to go to L.A several times to testify at the trial. I rode down and back with the two Deputies that had made the arrest. This was late in 1957. It had never occurred to me that becoming a police officer was one of my career choices but talking to those two deputies on our drives to L.A. And back encouraged me to take the written test for the Sheriff's Department.</div> <bR> <div> When they let me go at the liquor store La Vonne and I moved into Palmdale and rented a duplex apartment and shared the rent with La Vonne's sister Donna and her husband Dick Northrop. I got a job delivering milk in the early morning hours for Carnation. Dick was in the Navy. La Vonne had gone back to work for the government at Edwards Air Force Base and had a 35 mile commute each way but she was in a paid car pool riding with some guy that drove a VW micro bus. I did not care for the milk delivery job so when the Sheriff's Department sent me a written notice that I had passed the written exam and was scheduled to take the oral exam I was on the fence as to whether to do so or not. I did not want to be a cop, it didn't sound like work that I would enjoy, but on the other hand I did not like delivering milk either and being a cop paid more. La Vonne had gone to the beauty shop the morning of the oral exam and ask if she should make it a point to get back in time for us to drive to L.A. I told her no, I had decided against taking the oral. As it turned out she did get back just in time and in the meantime I had a change of heart so I took and passed the oral then the physical and was hired as a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff in 1958. I know that I drove the 56 Chevrolet down for my interview.</div> <bR> <div> When we moved down to L.A. To attend the Sheriff's Academy a couple months later we had traded the Chevy in on a <A HREF="id273.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="58 Renault"><U><B>new</B></U></A><A HREF="id273.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="58 Renault"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id273.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="58 Renault"><U><B>(2) 1958 Renault Dauphin (9)</B></U></A>. After the academy I was assigned back to the Sheriff's Mira Loma Facility in Lancaster. I remember that we still had the Renault when we were living in half a duplex in Lancaster across the street from the cemetery. </div> <bR> <div> Later in 1958 we bought a GI repo home in Lancaster for $12,500.00. At this point things get a little fuzzy on remembering cars. I don't remember what we were driving when we moved to the new house but I do remember that shortly after we moved in we had acquired a blue and white<A HREF="id274.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="55 Ford SW"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id274.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="55 Ford SW"><U><B>55 Ford Station Wagon (10)</B></U></A><B> </B>that had lots of miles and was none too good. I had decided to paint the car myself, not that I knew anything about painting cars but it was all rusty and I figured I couldn't hurt it any. While I was sanding it another Deputy from Mira Loma came by and offered to help when he found out that I did not have a clue as to what I was doing. That is how we met and became good lifelong friends with the Marler's. Chuck painted the car for me. Within the year we had dumped the Ford and had a <A HREF="id275.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="58 Studebaker SW"><U><B>1958 Green Studebaker Scotsman Station Wagon (11</B></U></A><B>)</B>. We drove this car for around a year we are in or about 1960 here. At the same time I had a second car to go to work in, it was an old white <A HREF="id276.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1950 Studebaker pick up"><U><B>1950 Studebaker pick up truck (12)</B></U></A><B>. </B>During these early years on the Sheriff's Department I was going to College full time and working at Mira Loma and La Vonne was back working for the government at Edwards AFB, she commuted thereand back in a daily car pool. At some point along about here La Vonne's Brother Bob who was still in the navy got orders to ship out for duty in Taiwan and La Vonne's brother Luther, who was still in the army, got orders about the same time for duty in Germany. Luther wanted to take his car to Germany but he couldn't take it out of the country because it wasn't paid for so he swapped cars with Bob who still had his 1955 Ford Crown Victoria which he had for six years or so and was paid for. I don't know what kind of deal they made but they both shipped out and Bob ended up leaving his new car, a 1959 Nash Rambler with us to take care of for him and to drive. Bob was in Taiwan for two years so after about a year and a half he told me to sell his Rambler which ran great and had low miles. I sold it to another Deputy Sheriff and the car promptly fell apart. I think that I lost a friend over that deal.</div> <bR> <div> I can't remember what we drove after the Rambler was gone but maybe it will come to me later. In 1961 my mom was killed in a car accident. In 1962 I left the Sheriff's Department and bought a Record Store in Lancaster. In 1963 Ron was born in Lancaster, California. Before leaving the Department I know I was driving a clean low miles <A HREF="id277.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="white 55 Pontiac 4 door"><U><B>white 1955 Pontiac (13)</B></U></A> and early on in my business I still had the Pontiac. About a year after buying the record store I had converted it into a full fledged music store and moved the location 2 blocks down the street. Now that I had a music store I needed a van to haul my musical supplies in so I bought a <B>off white 1959 Chevrolet van (14) ( NO PHOTO AVAILABLE) </B>which we had in addition to the Pontiac. In 1964 while we still had the music store I got a deal on a<A HREF="id280.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1931 Modle A"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id280.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1931 Modle A"><U><B>1931 Model A Ford 2 door sedan (15)</B></U></A> to park in front of the store and to drive in parades and what not. Also around 1964 we got a <A HREF="id281.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="64 Plymouth Valiant SW"><U><B>1964 Plymouth Valiant station wagon (16)</B></U></A> and got rid of the 55 Pontiac. The valiant was almost and only had a couple thousand miles on it. We ended up keeping this car for about 8 years, the longest time that we ever had any car. La Vonne stayed home during the time that I had the music store because she had two small children to care for.</div> <bR> <div> In or around 1965 I decided that I had heard all the rock and roll music that I was interested in hearing and sold the music store to another music store operator in town. He moved the inventory to his place and closed my store. I got a job with Morris Plan of California, a loan company as a collector of bad debts and we sold our house. We rented a home in Lancaster, at that time we still had the Valiant, and the Model A but had sold the van. At this point it would not be fair of me to claim to have owned all of the cars that I bought because I had made a side business out of buying cars and curbing them. This continued for about a year or so. I never registered them in my name and owned each for only a few weeks at the most. Finally I got a phone call from DMV that told me to either quit curbing cars or get a license and open a used car lot. I opted to quit. At this time La Vonne had taken a job with a local insurance adjuster as his secretary. </div> <bR> <div> Around 1968 or 69 we moved to Lomita, California (Near Torrence) where I started collecting accounts for a company called Fireside Thrift. First in their Torrence office then in their Long Beach office where I was given the title of Southern California Collection Manager because I trained the collectors in about five stores. La Vonne found employment in a local Hospital. Ron and Steve were enrolled in Harbor City Christian School and we were living in a rented apartment. During this period we still had the valiant of course, which La Vonne drove but I had first a <A HREF="id283.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="61 VW Karmann Ghia"><U><B>1961 VW Karmann Ghia</B></U></A><A HREF="id283.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="61 VW Karmann Ghia"><U> </U></A><B>(17)</B> then a little <A HREF="id284.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1960 Fiat 1200"><U><B>Fiat 1200 Spider Sport Car </B></U></A><B>(18)</B> to drive around in. I don't remember what year the Fiat was old and we didn't have it long. I left the finance trade, I had gone to H & R Block tax training and come the tax season went to work for them full time preparing tax returns. I was the assistant manager but we seldom saw the manager. At the end of the filing season I was looking for work again.</div> <bR> <div> In 1970 we decided to move to Reno, Nevada where Donna and Dick had settled. Before leaving Lomita I bought a <B>new (3) white Datsun 210 (19)</B>.(No photo available) I drove the Datsun to Hawthorne and parked it beside Bob's trailer but I had only been to Bob's trailer once and parked it beside the wrong trailer before hitchhiking back to Lomita. We rented a big U-Haul Trailer and headed for Reno, La Vonne driving the trusty Valiant and me driving the U-Haul. Donna and Dick had left a trailer load of their stuff in storage in California and he paid part of my U-Haul rental fee for renting a trailer and pulling it behind the truck to Reno for them. </div> <bR> <div> I had attended a two week course in bar tending before leaving Lomita so the first day that I started looking for a job in Reno, I was hired by Lincoln Fitzgerald to be a bar tender at the Nevada Club. I remember that I bought a Chevrolet cheap to fix up and sell but I won't count that as we had the new Datsun and the old Valiant to drive. We had rented a house in Sparks and La Vonne had gotten a job back with the government, this time with the Veterans Administration as a medical transcriber. We next bought a house on a street named Broadway in Reno and I can remember that there I had a<A HREF="id287.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="59 Rambler"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id287.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="59 Rambler"><U><B>brown 59 Rambler (20)</B></U></A><B> </B>and a green <B>57 International Pick Up (21) (no photo available)</B>. I don't remember what we did with the Datsun but we still had the Valiant.</div> <bR> <div> I tended bar for exactly one year before being hired by the Internal Revenue Service which was in June of 1971. I remember that we still had the Valiant and the brown Rambler while I was in training. While working for the IRS in Reno we sold the house on Broadway and bought a new double wide manufactured home at a new development in Sparks called Reno Cascade. Shortly after we moved we bought a <B>new (4) </B><A HREF="id289.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="71 Ford Fairlane Sedan"><U><B>blue 71 Ford Fairlane (22) sedan</B></U></A> and a <B>new (5) </B><A HREF="id290.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="72 Dodge Mini Motot Home"><U><B>Dodge mini motor home </B></U></A><B>(23) </B>and a <B>new (6) 1972 </B><A HREF="id291.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="72 Mazda pick up"><U><B>white Mazda Pick Up</B></U></A><B> truck (24)</B> these cars all happened over about a two and a half year period. I continued to work for the IRS and La Vonne continued to work for the VA. I don't remember exactly which cars we traded in or which we got rid of during this period.</div> <bR> <div> In 1974 I put in for a Revenue officer job transfer to Juneau, Alaska and got selected. I traded off some vehicle for a <B>1969 blue 4 wheel drive Jeep Cherokee station wagon (25),</B> ( No Photo Available) loaded my stuff in it and went to Alaska in April or May. La Vonne remained behind to sell the house. In June or July La Vonne arrived in Juneau, driving the Mazda Pick Up. Before her arrival I had traded the Jeep for a 12X60 Manufactured home and the dealer allowed me to continue to drive the Jeep until La Vonne arrived. At the last minute Steve who was now 18 and in love elected to remain in Reno. Ron who was 12 arrived with La Vonne. She had a job waiting for her with the VA in Juneau and never even had to take a break in service, so we both just transferred up with a promotion. Shortly after La Vonne arrived in Juneau the phone rang and the man on the other end said this Sergeant so and so from Reno. I thought Oh God, Steve is in trouble with the law. You can't imagine my relief when he further identified himself as a recruiting Sergeant with the United States Army, Steve wanted to enlist and he was calling to ask our permission. I immediately ask if a telegram would do or if necessary I would fly down immediately and sign the necessary papers. We finished fixing the manufactured home up and sold it for $12,500.00 cash then put that money down on a condo on Douglas Island, which was a part of Juneau. Before we moved into the Condo we traded the Mazda pick up in on a <B>new (7) </B><A HREF="id293.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="75 VW Rabbit"><U><B>yellow VW Rabbit</B></U></A><B>, 4 door sedan (26)</B>. In Juneau we made some new lifelong friends, Fred and Marie Wooten who continued to play a big part in our lives for the next 20 years and we are still in touch and see them periodically. When we met them they had two sons, one who was an adult and not in Alaska plus a Son and a Daughter who were teen agers. We made no more car changes while in Juneau and still had the Rabbit when we left Alaska in 1979. While in Juneau I left the job with IRS and took a job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a Financial Analyst.</div> <bR> <div> When we returned to the lower 48 we started shipping for a house in Seattle, not finding what we were looking for until we arrived in Vancouver where we made a fortuitous find and traded the Rabbit in on a <B>new</B> <B>(8) silver </B><A HREF="id294.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="77 Mazda 2 door"><U><B>1977 Mazda GLC 2 door sedan</B></U></A><B> (27)</B> we also bought a second car, a <B>green 1974 Chrysler station wagon (28). </B>In the meantime Fred Wooten, had retired from the Coast Guard and bought a home near ours in Vancouver, Washington. Our son Steve had married and divorced his girl friend for Reno and had finished his three year hitch in the Army. He moved to Beaverton, Oregon and attended hairdressers school for a year and worked for the Social Security Administration for a year while living with a girl friend. He broke up with his girl friend and got a job fixing hair at the Red Lion in Jantzen Beach, Oregon. That didn't work out so he got a job in a barber shop in Portland. About this time Steve fell in love with Fred and Marie' Wooten's daughter Kim and they were married shortly after we sold our house in Vancouver. We lived in that house for a couple years, until we had it all fixed up and sold for a nice profit then paid cash for a new manufactured home on a rented space in a new development park called Vista Del Rio in Camas, Washington, a suburb of Vancouver. La Vonne had gone back to work with the VA in Vancouver and I found a temp job with the U.S. Small Business Administration in Portland, Oregon as Bank Relations Officer. While still at the house in Vancouver my job with the SBA lost funding so the kept me on temporarily as a disaster loan officer. My first assignment in that capacity was to work a tornado disaster in Wichita Falls, Texas. In order to get there I needed a car as Steve had wrecked our silver Mazda I bought a <B>new (9) blue Toyota (29)</B>and left for Texas. I never liked that Toyota so I sold it in Lubbock, Texas and bought a <B>red 1971 VW micro bus (30)</B>. I drove the VW back to Vancouver when my tour was up in Texas. Shortly after returning home Ron was driving the micro bus and hit a horse. He was not hurt but it demolished the VW and the horse. I had been assigned to work at the Mt. St. Helens disaster in Longview, Washington so felt that I needed transportation to and from work, about 35 miles each way. I bought a <B>new (10) blue 1980 Chevrolet Station wagon (31)</B>. When the disaster ended about a year later I traded the station wagon in on a <B>new (11) 1981 Chevrolet Sprint 2 door sedan (32). </B>We ultimately sold the Sprint to Ron. At some point while at Vista Del Rio we had a <B>1972 Mazda Station Wagon (33)</B> which I sold to a coworker at the SBA, a <B>new (12) brown Mazda Pick Up truck (34), a new (13) Toyota Dolphin Mini Motor Home (35), a new (14) white Datsun or Nissan 4 door Sedan (36), </B>which we also sold to Ron, a <B>new (15) Nissan white Diesel pick up truck (37) and an almost new 1982 yellow Cadillac Fleetwood Sedan (38). </B>This was all during the 4 years that we lived at Vista Del Rio in Camas. I do not remember the order that the above vehicles fell in but I remember that Ron's brother in law wrecked the Nissan Sedan that we sold him and he was still driving the Sprint after we retired. I remember that we sold the Diesel pick up truck when we bought the Cadillac. In 1986 Ron Married Nancy Cochran who he had lived with for about 5 years. Their wedding took place at the clubhouse at Vista Del Rio. Their Son Jason was two months old at the time. Ron and Nancy both worked for the VA in Vancouver and when Steve finished his 5 years in the U.S. Coast Guard that he enlisted for right after marrying Kim Wooten La Vonne was able to get Steve and Kim jobs with the VA in Vancouver also. At that Roehr was the most common name at the VA in Vancouver.</div> <bR> <div> We subsequently sold the home at Vista Del Rio and moved to a Duplex in Vancouver, by this time La Vonne was working for the VA in Vancouver and in 1982 I had become a regular loan officer with the SBA in Portland. We did not live in the duplex for long, less than a year before trading the Toyota Motor home in on a <B>new (15) 35' Limited Motor home (39)</B> in Portland. We auctioned off all of or household goods and moved into the motor home although we were both still working. We had in the meantime bought a really nice clean little <B>brown 82 Buick</B> <B>(40)</B> for a second car. My friend Leo Fernandez borrowed the Buick and blew the engine in Medford, Oregon. I went to Medford and wholesaled the Buick to a dealer. We were living in the big motor home at Jantzen Beach at the time. I do not remember what our other car was at that time. After a year or so at Jantzen Beach we moved the big motorhome to Tualatin, Oregon. I saw an ad in the paper offering a 2 year lease on a <B>new (16) black 1991 Lexus sedan (41) </B>for a bargain price. Lexus had just been introduced so we leased one. I think that was in 1990. We drove the new Lexus 12 months then Lexus wanted it back and made me an offer I could not refuse, besides we wanted to dump the Lexus because an opportunity for early retirement had come about and we were anxious to get a smaller car that we could tow behind the motor home and retire. On October 30/31 of 1991 La Vonne and I both retired. We bought a <B>new (17) Nissan Sentra 4 door sedan (42)</B> to tow behind the motor home. We lived in the motor home towed the Nissan and traveled full time until May of 1992 when I had enough to that lifestyle. We had decided in our travels that of every where we had been that we liked Las Vegas, Nevada best so when our travels took us back to Las Vegas we rented an apartment and sold the big motor home. After that lifestyle change we wanted a bigger car so we traded the Nissan on a <B>gray 92 Chevrolet Caprice Classic 4 door sedan (43)</B> it was a program car and had about 6,000 miles so it was not new. </div> <bR> <div> After renting the apartment for a year we bought a Condo at Bavington Court in Las Vegas and lived there for a couple years we sold the Condo and bought a new home in North Las Vegas. We had gone up to Bremerton to visit Carol and Myrtle in 1994 or so and I bought a <B>blue GMC camper van (44)</B> that was in excellent condition. Ron moved down from Portland and we all decided to get a big house and share expenses. Ron got a job right away with IPT marble and stone maintenance service where he still works. We bought a large house in Las Vegas and all moved in. I know we did not still have the Chevrolet Caprice at this time but I can't for the life of me remember what we were driving. I guess I was just more into houses than I was cars. Oh yeah we had traded the Caprice in on a <B>1995 white Ford Taurus (45)</B> which was also a program car so it does not count as new. Our next car which we bought after moving into the big house was a <B>new (18) white Saturn 4 door sedan (46)</B>, we traded the Ford Taurus in on that, probably in 1997 or so. In the meantime I had sold the camper van and bought an old but nice <B>Chevrolet Mini Motor home (47). </B>While working on the awning of that motor home I fell off my stool and pulverized my right elbow. After my recovery which took over a year we no longer had the motor home and I was delivering business cards in the Saturn. I lost interest in that part time job then bought a <B>new (19) Ford Ranger small white pick up truck (48) </B>and started delivering Pizza's for Round Table. I then took a job as a night watchman at the Review Journal for a while then La Vonne's Mother Myrtle passed away and her sister Carol moved down to live with us in Las Vegas. I quit the newspaper job and La Vonne, Carol and I started selling used things at the swap meet. Our little Ford puck up proved inadequate for hauling all our junk around so I traded it in on a used <B>white 1992 Isuzu Diesel Furniture Van (49)</B>. We ran a swap meet business for two or three years. As a regular vendor I eventually qualified for a shed on my space so I no longer needed the big van to haul all my stuff around in. I had become the tent man at Broad Acres swap meet and that turned out to be a pretty good business. We needed a smaller truck and trailer to make our weekly run to Long Beach and L.A. To buy merchandise so I sold the truck to Larry and bought a white used <B>2000 Chevrolet delivery van (50)</B> and a new trailer. The big house that we had bought required more maintenance than we could keep up with, Carol had died of cancer and Las Vegas was becoming overcrowed more by the day. We wanted out and Ron had his eye on a new home in North Las Vegas that was an excellent investment opportunity. I sold my tent making inventory at the swap meet, we sold the house and we paid cash for a manufactured home in Pahrump, Nevada. By the time we moved we had acquired another <B>Toyota mini motor home (51)</B>. It was super clean and nice, but unbeknown to us had major structural problems. When we moved to Pahrump we had the Toyota motor home and the Chevy van. These vehicles were once again unsuitable for our acquired lifestyle so we traded the Chevy van in on a <B>new (20) Dodge Neon 4 door sedan (51)</B>. </div> <bR> <div> Back in 1986 Mercedes Bens introduced the 300 sdl Turbo Diesel and we wanted one real bad but they were way out of our price class, almost $40, 000.00 but ever since 1986 I had still wanted one. Mercedes only made the car in 1986 and 1987. I had been reading ads for them on eBay and but by this time in 2004 most of them had more than 250 thousand miles on them and were over the hill. On Christmas day, 2004 I went on eBay and found an <B>Ivory 1987 Mercedes 300 sdl Turbo Diesel (52) </B>with only 70,000 original miles for $10,000. I told La Vonne and she was less than enthusiastic but since she had been less than enthusiastic over any of the previous 51 car deals I had made in the previous 51 years I just bit the bullet and bought it anyway. There was a big storm coming in but we drove down to L.A. And picked up the car on December 26, 2004. As it turned out the car was beautiful and original but it had apparently been in storage for many years so we had to spend another $3,000. getting everything running right. We drove and enjoyed this beautiful conversation piece until November 2006. It had one major problem that nobody could really fix. It leaked oil and ruined any driveway or garage that it was parked in. By November 06 I had my fill of it and placed it back on eBay. It sold immediately for my asking price of $10,000. so we were only out the $3000 or so that we had spent on it for more than a year and a half of use which is not to bad an expense for owning and driving any car. A guy from Pennsylvania bought the car and flew out to Las Vegas to get it. We delivered it to him and returned home. On the day we sold the car we accompanied Donna and Larry, who now live next door to us in Pahrump to a local used car lot where they had spotted a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis that would have loved to have had. Larry talked trade to them and couldn't make a deal that was satisfactory to him so he declined to buy it. I mentioned to the salesman that I had sold my car for $10,000 cash that day but I did not plan on spending more than that amount for a replacement. He sold me the <B>2003 white Mercury Grand Marquis</B> <B>(53) </B>for my $10,000 out the door. That is they did not charge me sales tax or the $450.00 in other fees that accompany the sale of a used car. We went into Las Vegas on Thanksgiving at Ron's, a few days later and Larry drove both ways. He really liked that car. I was not all that thrilled with the 16 miles per gallon that it got so I agreed to sell it to him for what I paid for it in November. Now once again in need of a car I went back to the same lot where we had bought the Mercury and they had a very low mileage, <B>metallic blue, 2003 Toyota Camry</B> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>(54)</B></FONT> with a 4 calendar engine that suited us to a "T" La Vonne even likes the car. We ended up paying $14,000.00 for it but it is worth it to me for the better gas mileage that it will get and it is like new. I guess I am happy with our car situation now and once again have vowed to never buy sell or trade another car the rest of my life, or at least in the foreseeable future.</div> <bR> <div> So we have had 54 cars (20 of them brand new) in our 52 years together. I guess there was not any car deal that I ever made that La Vonne was in favor of although she drug her feet more on some than on others. For my part I don't really regret any of them although most of them were really dumb, I can see that now but they seemed to make sense at the time. I have difficulty in remembering that far back but I must have had 12 or 15 cars before I went in the army in 1954. Almost all of them were old junkers and I changed often. I left one parked at the curb when I went in the army and it was gone when I got out of basic training. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>