Page 16 - Feb2023
P. 16

This  is our 1958 MGA!


          And here iis it s  Back St ory ?
                                                               Jump  forward  to  sometime  in  the  mid  ?70?s,
          Both  my  parents  are  Canadian  ?  but  my         and Dad decides he would like to find an MGA
          father,  Glenn  Hopps,   immigrated  to  the  US     to restore.
          (Sacramento, California) when he was nine.
                                                               He locates a 1958 in the paper (because, that?s
          On  a  trip  back  to  Canada  (Bowmanville  -       how you found used cars back then). He and I
          Toronto area) in 1958, driving his brand-new         begin to restore it together - he did the work
          MGA, he met my mother. What ensued was               that  involved  $$  -  paint,  etc.,  and   I  did  the
          numerous  cross-country  trips  through  the         ?sweat? type work - brakes, etc., because that?s
          fall  and  winter  of  1958  in   that  same  MGA    really all a 16-17 year old can offer/afford.
          while he courted her.
                                                               More  years  later  ?  in  1988  ?  I  was  living  in
          My  uncle  tells  me  that  my  dad  ?had  the       Fresno, California,  working for an airline, and
          coolest  car  in  town?.   After  marrying  and      asked a girl I was sweet on if she would like to
          driving  away  in  that  same  MGA,  it  became      fly  up  to  Redding  (where  my  parents  were
          apparent  that  it  wasn?  the  best  car  for  the   living) for an ?adventure?.
                                   t
          Canadian winters and with kids coming--well,
                                                               Surprisingly,  she  accepted,.   My  future  wife
          he sold it.
                                                               and  I  spent  our   first  date   touring  my  old
          A couple years later, my parents  moved back         hometown in Dad?s 1958 MGA.
          to  California,  where  I  was  born.   It  was
                                                               Many more years later ? in 2017,  Jennifer and I
          something  about  crunching  through  the
                                                               are sitting at a ball game, and she asks, ?What
          snow  on  Easter  Sunday,  and  my  father
                                                               would  you  like  for  our  25th  wedding
          putting his foot down.
                                                               anniversary??
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