STOPPING INTO the body shop on our way to the hospital, Jack and I saw the wreckage. The old car was in bad shape. I’d previously seen the hardtop in many shows around the state. During the restoration many efforts had been made by Jack to keep the car original, including the continental kit.., like when it rolled from the assembly line in January 1955.

 Why the wreckage? Jack had relented and relinquished the keys to his prize just once. As a graduating gift to his high school senior son, he’d given the keys. David had asked for one night out alone in the classic Ford… just once… for the prom. It couldn’t hurt. David was a model driver, who had never had a ticket. Just for the prom.., it couldn’t hurt.

  A call came to Jack’s household later that night. The voice on the other end of the conversation said that there had been an accident. David was alive, but badly hurt. The voice said they needed verbal permission to do surgery. With a prayer to God and thanks spoken to the voice, Jack and his wife went to the hospital to await the news. After harrowing hours of surgery, David was put into intensive care.

 Now, a week later, Jack related to me that David had improved. He said he hadn’t been racing. Trying to bolster the statement, he said “David wasn’t usually reckless, but who really knows what a young person thinks he can do.”

 David had been told to be careful by his parents. Besides, Jack emphasized, both he and David knew the hardtop wasn’t fast. He continued.., “There was no sense to racing it. It was just beautiful. Even in the mid 50’s, it was not the type of car that anyone held up as a drag machine.”

 But I could see that even now, Jack… as a parent, carefully weighed his son’s word. Again he mumbled that David had said he wasn’t racing.

Shaken and Stirred: No Dice!

 In my body shop experience, it seemed that any survivor of this major wreckage was blessed. In the police report, the scene and damage was written as related by the truck driver. The car had simply veered over the white line into oncoming traffic, and was struck in the left front by the man’s semi-tractor trailer. And then the hardtop spun wildly… deflected back to the right. The road’s gutter, a culvert, and a maple tree

then teamed up to stop the pell-mell action.

 Miraculously, held into seat belts by the only modern safety improvements initiated by his father, both son and his passenger survived. The young lady had gotten a bruised knee from the motoring merry-go-round and crumpled prom night memories. But David was badly hurt. Though the seat belt had secured him, the steering wheel did not collapse. It had not been built to do so. And there are no modern crush zones in a ’55 Ford. The vehicle punched him hard and the steering wheel

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”     Romans 3:19

Go to Next Page...

The Lord is my light and my salvation… ( Psalm 27:1a)