Page 33 - Oct 2022

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V olvos have been a fixture in the life of my family dating to 1959. That
Wiping Away t

was the year of my first Volvo purchase: a PV444.?PV?means personal
vehicle, and 444 refers to the model that was designed in 1944 after
WWII which went on sale in Sweden in 1946. In 1957 they were starting
to be sold in the US. The Miracle at Hickory
by Dr. Martin Stickley
I n 1959, Volvo changed the design somewhat and renamed it a PV544. This car
resembles a postwar Ford but was about 80% the size of that car. I was so impressed
with the build quality of this car (compared, for example, to the 1954 DeSoto that we
had in 1959) that I traded it along with some cash to a college friend from the
University of Cincinnati who was in need of money as his wife had become pregnant.
I was a 2LT in the USAF at the time and stationed at LG Hanscom Field outside of Rt
128 in Boston, and Dottie was working for a small (two people) package design
company in nearby West Newton, MA.

T his Volvo was our first of perhaps seven 544s (I'm not sure of the number) that we
have owned over the years; put another way, we have always owned a 544 all of our
married life (64 years), and the light green one that we now own will be our last, (I
think!) It is kept in the Magnolia Court garage. Story continues on page 2

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