When I was in High School, I was trying to find a car to replace my 1975 Hurst Olds that I had sold a month earlier. I kept bugging a friend of mine to sell me his Cutlass, but he wouldn't budge. But he did tell me about another Olds that was in the newspaper the night before. I called the seller, and decided to meet the next Saturday. I asked my friend Joe to go with me to look at it, and on Saturday we headed out.
It was a 1977 Olds 442. We looked it over, and took it for a drives. He was asking $2000, and it was not negotiable. I thought about it and asked Joe what he thought. He told me it was not worth it. I wasn't so sure. I REALLY liked this car. He kept telling me not to buy it, but alas.....I did anyway.
December 13, 1985 I took it home.
I called my insurance company and told them I needed coverage from where I was, to my house, and then to his office. He said, "No problem." and I headed for home to grab some cash. I was literally 75 yards from my driveway when a car slid into the rear quarter of my Olds. I of course call my insurance agent, and he informs me that I was NOT covered. He had not filed any paperwork for me, and that was that. I was pissed. Even though it was not my fault, I ended up having to pay for HER damage from where she hit ME.
I drove this car everywhere. School, work, even off road one time. Never failed me once.
Then one night I had a dream. I was driving to a party on my 21st birthday. On the way, a car pulled in front of me out of nowhere, and I rammed into the rear of the car at full speed. The impact happened in slow motion, but I was moving in real time. The car was crushing back into me. Grill, hood, engine dashboard all slowly coming towards me. And I could do nothing. It was crushing my legs, and my chest. All in slow motion. Just before my head was to be crushed, I woke up. I was screaming it was so real. This dream would repeat over 2 dozen times over the next few years. I was convince I would die in this car on my 21st birthday.
In fall of 1987 on my way to my apartment, the engine started to make a strange sound. Suddenly as quick as I noticed it, hot oil started blowing out the side of the hood. I made it as far as the Whirlpool Ad Center, and coasted into the parking lot. I had let a friend borrow my car the day before, and he did me a "favor" by tightening down the lifters and that was that. The engine was done.
It sat for awhile before I had it towed to my new place in Benton Heights. The people I rented from rebuilt the engine, and helped get it back on the road. It ran so much stronger with a rebuild. Until the blown motor, I had never had a problem with this car.
But the dream continued.
I moved to Charlevoix in 1988. 2 months away from my 21st birthday. The car had seen better days, but still ran great. Rust was taking it's toll, and we ended up spray painting it black to help cover the rust. The night of my 21sy birthday, I bought some beer, and a friend of mine and I went to a small party. I made sure I stayed there all night, and let the next morning. I was NOT taking any chances. That dream was way too real. My Birthday passed, and I survived.
That December 21st I was driving to my girlfriends house. There was no traffic on US31, and I was hauling along. I was on a long straight stretch of road, and NOBODY was in front of me. I looked down at my stereo to change the station and then looked up.
Stooped in the road was a Jeep Cherokee And I mean RIGHT in front of me. Not even 4 car lengths from my hood. All I could do to react was pull the car into the other lane to avoid the collision, at 60mph mind you. I JUST avoided the rear end, and slid across to the shoulder on the OTHER side of the road, and then pulled it back across to the shoulder on my side. I came to a sliding stop. I sat there for 5 seconds with my heart banging away in my chest. I jumped out of the car, and looked back at the other driver.
There was nobody there. No car, no driver. Nothing. There was no driveway, no road not even a two-track that they could have turned down. It was like the Jeep was never there. Even though I remember to this day what it looked like, and even the bumper sticker it had in the back window, but it was gone......it just vanished.
I was really shaken up by what had happened. But I never told too many people. I was afraid I had imagined the whole thing.
I never had that dream again, and eventually I sold the car in November of 1990. 75,000 miles and 2 engines later, it went to a kid in Stevensville, Michigan. It was last seen in 1994 still driving. Who knows where it is now. The best car I had ever owned. A car I was told that I should NEVER buy, turned out to be the car I loved the most.
Even though it nearly killed me.
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