So we brought the Jag home on a Tuesday night in early May of 1986.
Our house was in your basic suburban development – NOT the kind of place you worked on cars like this… The house was built on a hill, so that in the front it was a basic 2-story colonial, but in the back, it was 3 stories, with the rear wall of the basement fully exposed, and there was about a 12-foot square of concrete back there with a sliding glass door into the basement – which was as big as the whole house, so it was pretty big. We pulled both pans out of the sliding glass door, and rolled the Jag in – it took up less than 1/4 of the basement.
About half of the basement was already taken up by “the shop” – which Bab always had in the basement of every house we ever lived in. It was where he built furniture, fixed lawnmowers, boat parts, attempted to restore the Model T – and basically just hung out all the time. Bab was a MAJOR insomniac – he was down there in the middle of the night working ALL THE TIME when I was growing up. I guess it runs in the family – I’m out in the shop now writing this at 5:41 AM – I have been awake since 3:00…
So the Jag was home and it was time to start working on it – which we jumped right into immediately. But before I start getting into the details of that, I think I should get this other concept out of the way first…
The day we brought the Jag home was toward the end of my Freshman year in high school. I think you could make a good case that, for the most part, I never went back to “school” after that – EVER. I was in all of these highly advanced classes with Seniors already as a Freshman, and I think that looking back on it, I just kind of skated through the rest of high school with the knowledge I already had… Once I got the Jag – I COMPLETELY “checked out” – of school, the world around me, and even the 1980’s altogether… My brain went from May 1986, to – Oh let’s say September, 1962 (when the jag was built…)
I IMMEDIATELY started listening to “Oldies” – which Bab was already doing pretty regularly by then. In about 1982, when we were still living in Lansdale, PA, he had bought a TON of 45 records from the 60’s in a nearby resale shop – “Al’s Bargain Store” (I could write a book about the things my parents bought there…)
He played the records excessively at the time, and recorded alot of his favorites on a cassette tape labelled “Bab’s Antique Sounds” – which was an old Insurance training tape he had taped over. Well, I dug these tapes out and started listening to them, as well as the records themselves, and especially The Beach Boys.
In the 70’s, we lived in Delaware, and Bab was really into Surf Fishing. In Delaware, you can drive 4-wheel drive trucks right out onto the beach if you are fishing, and he had a 1970 Jeep Commando he had repainted baby blue, and I remember loving the Surf fishing. He had the metal pole from a street sign (with all the holes in it…) bolted along the top of the windshield, and up there he had a stereo, CB, Casette player, and 8-track – in true 70’s fashion! It was probably about ’77 or ’78, so it makes sense that he often was listening to The Beach Boys album “Endless Summer” which was a greatest hits compilation that came out in ’76… I had had this entire album DRILLED into my brain when I was about 7 years old – and I liked it – always listening to it on sunny days – literally ON THE BEACH – helped, I’m sure…
So now I’m 14, I’m looking for a new life, and the Jag has come onto the scene. I’m not sure I put alot of conscious thought into it at the time, but I just decided to change everything all at once – and the music was a big part of it.
So in the early days of the Jag, there was alot of Beach Boys and Oldies coming out of the shop stereo (Bab’s shop was always well-outfitted with vintage stereo equipment from garage sales, etc…) I didn’t really know what I was going for – I just thought it made sense to listen to oldies while I worked on the old car I guess…
Then I saw American Graffiti.
I had a good friend in Boy Scouts named Eric Lind – he was a year younger than me, but his parents were about 5-8 years older than mine I guess. Eric’s dad seemed to be one of these “lost in the Fifties” guys – which was also getting big at the time – I guess because all of the people who graduated in the 50’s were all hitting their mid-life crisis together. Anyway, Eric’s dad was into old cars and stuff (although he didn’t have one at the time…), and he was always talking about ’55-’57 Chevys. It’s weird to realize now, but I’m SURE I didn’t have a clue what they were at the time – although my overall car knowledge was ramping up – REAL QUICK! Now, about once every 2 or three years, I see a car at Hershey I can’t identify – you’ll usually see them in the blog, because I always go over and check them out and take photos…
So anyway, one night not too long after I got the Jag – maybe within 4-6 weeks, I spent the night over Eric’s and we watched “American Graffiti” – which I had never heard of before. Well, I had kind of this hazy concept of Bab’s high school days, and the oldies thing and all, but seeing American Graffiti is what finally made everything click – THIS is what I was after!
American Graffiti had EVERYTHING I wanted out of life at the time – even though I didn’t quite know what that was yet. But within about 90 minutes, it was all laid out right there in full color on the TV screen in front of me:
- I need to build and have the fastest car around – period.
- I need a good group of friends who are also into cars and having a good time.
- I need to drive around and pick up girls and then drive to secret locations and “Park”…
- I need a steady girlfriend.
- Once I turn 16, I need my nights to be like THIS!
- And – I need to do WHATEVER it takes to get there…
The Jag seemed like the “ticket” to this new life – it just seemed so simple! In my 14-year-old mind, it was an absolute CERTAINTY that if I finished the Jag, everything else in my imaginary, ideal life would just magically “materialize” around it.
The CRAZY thing is – that’s EXACTLY what happened…
Upon seeing American Graffiti for the first time not long after getting the Jag, I would have gladly stepped right into this movie and never come back. But despite the fact that "Back to the Future" had just come out the summer before, I knew I couldn't go back in time to the 60's... So instead, I decided to bring the world of the 60's to me, and I was convinced that rebuilding the Jag would do it...
