All images are courtesy of the McC/Ren family archives
In the past 20 or so years, my parents have become the keepers of records for their respective families. It’s been fascinating to sort through what seems like thousands of old photos and turn up ones including interesting old cars. My father recently sent me a scan of the handsome color photo above, which shows my great-uncle Steve’s house in Fresh Meadows, Queens, New York, taken sometime in the early-mid 1960s.
I was fascinated to see what appears to be a 1960 Valiant in the driveway, because this jogged a memory.
Uncle Steve, my maternal grandmother’s brother, died in 1992, and the entire family came together to clean out that house to ready it for sale. Steve was a man of many interests and hobbies, but cars were not one of those, unfortunately. He must have been a dedicated Mopar guy, though, as his last car was a Slant Six-powered, triple-burgundy two-door Dodge Aspen with a bench seat and column-shift automatic.
As I pitched in with the sorting and boxing of Steve’s personal effects, I kept my eyes peeled for anything automotive-related. I only turned up a few things, two of which were the receipt and photo shown below.
It seems that Uncle Steve -an aircraft mechanic by profession, who worked at the nearby Idlewild Airport- traded a basic 1958 Plymouth Savoy hardtop in on the basic Valiant V200, so his priority in motoring was obviously thrifty, no-frills transportation. (Thank goodness I didn’t inherit that gene.) It is fun to see the amounts associated with that new 1960 Valiant- $32.31 in sales tax! And that $2,350.65 would be the equivalent of a surprising $18,775 today.
Seeing the photo of the black Valiant made me think that I was looking at the car that Steve had bought in February of 1960. But as I dug out that yellowed receipt to compare, I found the black and white photo (which I’d completely forgotten about) with it- it appears that I already had a picture of the Valiant whose purchase was indicated by that receipt. Notice the damage to the back of the then-one-year-old gray car, and the way the driver’s door is ajar in that photo- could that photo be an impromptu shot documenting a parking lot accident?
So, Uncle Steve… what was the story with the black car, which appears to be the same model year and trim level as the gray one? The black Valiant certainly looks like it belongs at your house, considering how it’s parked in the driveway, looking ready to be pulled into your waiting garage. And yet that car wears a different license plate than the one visible in the photo of the gray car- so did it belong to someone else? Or did you trade your damaged gray Valiant for the shiny black one?
Unfortunately, that’s a question that will never be answered…
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