BOB'S FIRST LOVE

Bob - 1967. Cathlamet, WA.

This 1968 Camero was Bob's 1st love. He bought it with his own money ... money earned the hard way doing summer jobs and working in the woods with his Dad's log trucking business.

I only saw it once - but I recognized it immediately because Bob talked nonstop about it. He loved it.

It was teal colored and a hot rod ... he outran cops and was untouchable; he wasn't doing anything illegal, just having fun with the local cops. And they were pissed because they could not catch him even though they all KNEW it was him dusting them. He also used his hot rod as a time car for stock car racers at the Tacoma Speedway - racers with a big race coming up would call him to come run his car against theirs because they knew his car was unbeatable and if they could beat his time, they would win the race.

Bob told me, when we bought the Horizon 2½ years ago (shown here), that it was the same color as his Camero was.

His Camero was pretty much all I heard about for the first 3 years of our relationship/marriage.

I listened; you all know how it is with your 1st love. LOL

So anyway, we & Doug (yes, my old boyfriend) were out one afternoon hitting the bars, playing pool and being young when in one bar on Commerce - the one where Country Folks Deli was for 2 decades until they recently moved - the past and the present collided. Before it was a Deli, it was a relic of a bar: nice, but old-timey with a huge woodtop-bar counter that covered one entire wall and boot scraper rail underneath the bar top. A looooong mirror covered the wall behind the bar. It reminded me of an old-time cowboy bar, which it probably was. I needed some fresh air, so I stepped outside to clear my head and have a cigarette. I looked up and saw this guy dinking under the hood of a car that seemed very familiar to me.

Though I had never SEEN Bob's car because he had sold it during his first marriage when Alex came along and money was tight ... I KNEW THIS WAS HIS CAR because he had talked about it so much in glowing detail that I knew that I KNEW this was "THE car". Every instinct lead me forward and I asked the guy what was wrong with the car. He told me, and I got excited for Bob, and said, "I think this is my husband's car - I'll go get him and he can tell you exactly what is wrong and how to fix it."

I went back into the bar and said to Bob, "Babe, there is a guy outside working under the hood of your Camero: why don't you go see if you can help him out a bit."

Bob looked at me quizzically and I explained what I saw and told him again to "Go! Go see your girl one more time." The gleam in Bob's eyes would have made me jealous if I was not secure in his love for me; hahaha

He practically ran out the door. I followed and watched from the sidelines as Bob stuck his head under the hood of his Camero and explained to the guy what needed to be done. Then the guy shook Bob's hand, hopped into Bob's baby, and sped off.

I finally got to see Bob's first love.

We have had several cars, trucks, min-vans, and off-road vehicles in our 44 years together, but that Camero was always top dog ;-)

Bob was 17 years old in this picture and batching it in the house he, his dad, and his brother built on the upper end of the family property in Cathlamet, so he could finish out his last 2 years of High School with his friends and football team when the rest of the family moved to Toutle.

I had not yet moved to Cathlamet; we still lived in Skamokawa. 7 years later Bob and I married and lived in the big house he lived his youth in on the backside of the family property; and 3 years later, I finally met the love of his life (besides me, of course, who topped the top dog ;-)).