Page 13 - Beep Beep March 2022

would go everywhere with six or eight of them crammed in. Friday nights we would go to the drive-in movies with four people in the car and two more in the boot. After a couple of years of this hectic life-style John would often have to work on me to keep me going and I was starting to feel my age. One day John gave me away to his younger cousin Ian who lived on a farm. John told Ian, she’s nearly out of rego and won’t pass a roadworthy inspection without a fair bit of work, but would make a good paddock basher and you will get some driving experience. I did not like the sound of this. What is a paddock basher? I was soon to find out.
Each afternoon after school Ian would drive me around the farm. And as his skills improved we would go faster and faster. Ian had me sliding sideways on the corners, knocking down small trees, and bouncing over rocks and logs. My radiator core became clogged with grass seeds and my engine boiled constantly. Ian would fill my radiator with muddy dam water and top up the sump with used tractor oil. One hot afternoon I could take no
more and my engine seized up while climbing a hill in the paddock. Ian rolled me back down the hill trying
to clutch-start me. I finally came to rest with my rear end partially submerged in the dam. I thought to myself, this is it for me, my life is over.
The next day, Ian and his dad dragged me out with the tractor and parked me in a dark corner of their barn where I gathered dust and the mice moved in. A few years later, two men came along and loaded me onto a car trailer being pulled by a mid-60s Dodge Phoenix. As the road passed beneath me I felt good with the wind blowing through my broken windows. Some hours had passed when I was unloaded and pushed into a small repair
workshop somewhere near Port Macquarie. These people covered me over with a tarpaulin. Oh no! They think I am dead! From time to time when business was quiet someone would repair dents and rust that had set in around my rear end. Then nothing happened for a few years until I was sold off at auction along with the rest of the workshop equipment.
The next I remember, I was back on another car trailer, but being towed by a Jeep this time. We travelled a long way and ended up in Queensland. My new owner whose name is Richard, stripped me down to every nut and bolt, body off and all mechanicals overhauled. More dent and rust repairs and a complete new paint job. I was feeling like new again. Richard drove me regularly. I have carried brides to their weddings. I have been admired wherever I go, and even won a few trophies at car shows. This is the life for me. I shudder to think how close I came to being scrap metal, melted down and turned into a production line of beer cans or something. I am now a very happy Plymouth travelling the roads of Queensland with the wind blowing through my windows and a smile on my grill.
Richard Leonard.
13