Lots of great stories too...
My Grandma's best friend was this lady who lived underneath her, her name was Estelle. Estelle was almost the same age as Grandma, maybe a little
younger. No one knew much about Estelle's background, she never talked about it. But she had a car, and she drove that car. (The car itself is
another whole story of its own...maybe another time).
My Grandma wanted to make some of her famous clam chowder for us, so we had to go down to the fish market to get the clams and also pick up some milk
and butter. Estelle was visiting Grandma as this discussion evolved. Estelle jumps up and says
"I'll take ya! We can go in my car!" Grandma
says we should let Estelle drive us to the market. **sigh** Okay, so we agree to let Estelle drive. (she was probably pushing 100 at this point).
I'm figuring we're going to go on a 15mph excursion to the store, but oh well, Estelle seemed pretty excited about the whole deal.
We get in her car which is a 60's vintage mint condition Dodge Coronette. I mean you could eat off the seats in this thing it was so clean. She
backs out, and then proceeds to lay rubber across the parking lot! I'm ready to grab the wheel thinking she just had a stroke and died right there!
She manages to stop at the edge of the parking lot, looks both ways, and punches it again out onto the street, just burnin' rubber! HOLY CRAP!!
Estelle had two speeds...Mash the gas pedal to the floor, and/or mash the brake pedal to the floor! That's it! We're going down this side street and
Estelle has got her foot in this Coronette. I'm watching the speedo...40, 50, 60, 70...we're in a 35mph speed zone, and we're coming up to a stop
sign. I'm pointing, my (ex) wife is in the back seat hanging on for dear life. VRRROOOOM! Estelle blows through this stop sign like it's not even
there!
Me:
"Estelle, you did see that stop sign back there, right?"
Estelle:
"Yeah, I saw it, but I'm old; I don't have time for that crap."
I think we hit the parking lot of the market at about 75mph, and she cranks the wheels around to the left and does a power-slide up to the curb at the
front door and says only...
"HURRY! Don't have much time!"...LOL! Felt like I should run in and rob the joint, with Estelle as my
getaway driver! As I'm sprinting through the fish joint I'm picturing the next days headlines in the paper...."Clamburglar Strikes Again!"
The ride home was pretty much the same, although Estelle did slow down a little bit for one of the red lights; she just kind of lifted her foot off
the gas momentarily and then stomped on it at about the middle of the intersection!
(Found out later that car actually had a Hemi in it, one of the original Hemi's)
The clam chowder was awesome.
edit on 8/15/2021 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)