Date Posted:19:01:09 03/28/03 Fri Author:Bill Price Subject: M38 jeep in 1958
Here's a true story that has made grown men weep: My dad was the firechief in a small mountain town in So. Cal. in the late '40's and '50's. In 1958 he took himself down to Camp Pendleton Marine Base for an auction. He found a 1951 Willys M38 in perfect condition, except that some young Marine apparently decided he wanted something newer, so sugar had been dumped in the gas tank. In the name of the fire dept., my dad bought it for $80.00. Eight-zero. Towed it home, cleaned it out himself, put a few new parts in the engine, which the Marines gave him, and there was a mint original, with all the USMC markings, and all the doo-dads--24-volt, snorkel, black-out lights. He never re-painted it. That being a simpler time (i.e., far fewer lawyers), and a friendly little town, that Jeep was my toy during all my college-vacation time and every summer. My dad died in 1960, and the new fire chief gave my mom the pink slip, and told her to sell it and keep the money. It went for $850, which became a '56 MG-A, and another story.
Bill Price
