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REGARDING JIM RICHARDSON’S
column in HCC #191: Growing up in Pasadena, California, in the ’50s, I, too, enjoyed cruisin’ the streets and pulling into Bob’s Big Boy drive-in on Friday and Saturday nights, to hang with the car guys and gals. My ride was this 1940 Ford, given to me on my 16th birthday when Dad, the original owner, switched to a 1950 Chevrolet station wagon. It wasn’t long before I transformed the old Ford into a hot rod, courtesy of Don Blair’s Speed Shop, complete with a modified Corvette engine, headers, louvered hood, shiny black paint, a Bob Miller top, and real Moon Disc wheel covers. I foolishly sold it for $500 when I joined the Navy “to see the world,” but ended up in San Diego on shore duty. I sure would like to have that car back now, to pull into the ongoing weekly cruise-ins at the Glendale Howard Johnson’s or Derelict Donuts in Huntington Beach.
Curt Mason Oak Island, North Carolina
YOUR CITROËN RETROSPECTIVE IN
#190 brought back memories of my father’s 1967 ID19 and ’71 DS21. We picked up the light mint ID19 in Paris to use during my dad’s sabbatical. He was supposed to teach at universities in France and England, but alas, getting the car coincided with him injuring his back. We needed to travel to the South of France, so the solution was for my 19-year-old brother to drive. He had never driven a manual transmission, so had to learn quickly how to pilot that spaceship down the Any malfeasance on the clutch, sudden stops or starts, or bad turns, would send my dad into howling pain. Hats off to my brother for pulling off that amazing feat. And hats off to Citroën for producing such a profoundly comfortable, interesting, and entertaining car. My dad recovered enough to flog that Citroën on English backroads before we put it on a ship back to Chicago. He loved that car, which we nicknamed Pierre (of course). I don’t recall how many speeding tickets he received in his Citroëns, but it was more than a few. Nothing ever was, or will be, quite like them. As for me, I still hanker for a 2CV, which I think is the most brilliant car ever. The sound of that aluminum
