It all started back in the early 70’s. 1971 to be
exact. That’s the year I got my drivers license and first job. Telling
my parents that I was now a responsible and hard working teenager I would
be needing a car that would be reliable and get good gas mileage. After a
week of looking, my parents bought me a 1965 Malibu SS with a 283. Did I
tell you my first job was as a salesman? So after that I had a 65 Mustang
2 +2, 74 El Camino, 74 Trans Am, 75 Corvette, 76 Camaro, 77 Trans Am, 78
Z-28 and a 79 Custom van.
Well you guessed it, I got married shortly after the
van and became the proud owner of a Toyota pick up and a Ford Granada.
Well after buying a house and having a kid there was no money available
for a good old fashioned American made Muscle Car.
Well that changed in 1995. After telling Julie that I
was getting close to that dreaded age of 40 years old, I needed a Muscle
Car to make me feel young again. She laughed at me and just shook her
head. That spring at The Good Guy’s Show in Pleasanton I found what
would make me feel young again (no it wasn’t a younger wife!). There
was a young man parking a beautiful GTO and putting a "For
Sale" sign on the windshield. I put one hand on my wallet and
gripped my beer a little tighter and walked over to him and began talking
about the car. He had just got it out of the paint shop and was hoping to
finish the car for himself but was laid off. Looking over the car very
carefully I could tell that there was very little to do to finish the car
and he had spent a lot of time to make the car as original as possible. I
made him an offer on the spot and he accepted it. I went home to tell
Julie what I had just done. When I told her I had just bought a beautiful
1970 GTO she just about blew a gasket. She thought I was joking when I
told her I wanted a Muscle Car. Well that night the owner called and said
he had gotten a better offer on the car and if I wanted to match it he
would sell it to me. I said no, and was extremely disapointed. Next
morning he called and said that the other person could not come up with
the money. Would I be still be interested in the car at our original
price. Well, three hours later it was sitting in our garage.
I drove all the time in the Tri-Valley area and was
only able to do a couple of shows since I worked week-ends.
About 2 years later I stopped working week-ends and began going to
some shows and while going to The Good Guy’s Show in Pleasanton I met a
great group of people that belonged to The Golden Gate Goats. Since that
time Julie and I have traveled to Reno, Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Madera,
Monterey and numerous other great areas to have fun with people that
enjoy life as well as their cars. For those that never come to any
events, you don’t know what your missing. It’s about going out as a
group and having fun, the cars are great but only a part of the total GTO
experience.
