Mad Moe's Junkyard and the Chevvy '62

When you see Mad Moe and his wife Mary walking down the street you would say they look the average middle-aged couple. A couple of wrinkles, an couple of grey hairs. That was not always the case.

Moe and Mary met in the seventies, at a Rolling Stones concert. Of course they didn't have wrinkles and grey hair then. They were "hip", with long hair, jeans so tight you could only put them on stretched out on the floor, and once you stood on your feet again,you better not sit down for the day. They both wore John Lennon glasses. Of course they both remembered Woodstock, although they never went there. Ah yes, those were the days. They married and found a house in the suburbs. The hair got shorter, and "hip" was a word only to be found in dictionaries. Of course there were the kids. Actually they were an ordinary family, living an ordinary life. But Moe had a dream.....

Moe's dream was not exactly the same as Mary's. The kids were grown-up now and had flown the nest. And Mary wanted to live outside the town. Have a bit of land perhaps. And so they sold the house in the suburbs and went house-hunting. This was not easy; the budget was not much. But at last something showed up in the window of the Realtor.

The house they were standing in front of with the Realtor didn't look the way it had on the photo. Actually it looked an absolute mess. The house was old, but as Mary said, looking at the climbing rose desperately trying to cling to the old walls, "you can make something of it, just a bit of wallpaper and we'll be alright.".
Moe thought differently, but didn't say anything; his attention was caught somewhere else.

"Yes" he thought, "this is exactly what I never wanted", "a junkyard full of trash, it will take me years to clean that out!".He looked around him,his face had a desperation on it only rivaled by refugees in a camp. Rusty car-parts, old fridges, old machinery and old cars, all piled up. It would take quite a bit of effort to make this into a garden. But the budget was only so much and there was a bit of land around it. So the papers were signed, and Moe and Mary moved in a caravan until they could move in the new house.

In the evenings Moe stood in front of the caravan looking at the junk. Once upon a time he too had a dream, and that's why he bought the house. You see Moe loved old cars, "classics" as they were called now. But Moe still remembered driving one of those "classics", when they were fresh out of the factory. He could still remember the smell of new vinyl, the thin steering-wheel. So he got an idea...

"If I clear all this mess out, I could have a car-yard" he thought to himself. And so he started the work next day. After a couple of weeks it looked a lot better. But one day it happened: Under all the trash there it was:like a rough diamond: a Chevy, all rusty and no tires. It sat in the grass, weeds had grown all over it. Moe saw his dream come true and started to clear the grass away. In his mind he could see it all done up, shining like a mirror. Could he do it?

A friend who was a mechanic showed up and looked at it. "With a bit of work and elbow-grease it could be restored,' no problem"he said. This was a rather optimistic view but Moe bought the idea. And so the two set to work. After a year or so it was beautiful; a grey shining Chevrolet Impala with whitewall tires.Brand-new vinyl seating inside; the way Moe remembered it all.

Moe's and Mary's house was still a mess, and they still lived in the caravan. The yard looked spacious, ready for the car-yard. In the middle was the Impala, like a piece of art on display., but no other cars on sale. Moe could have sold the car for a lot of money and started his car-yard. But did he do it? You love cars, or else you wouldn't read this story. Would you have sold it?