This photo of my ’65 Chevelle brings to mind another true factoid from my past. I bought the car for $100 while working in radio. It was twelve years old, when that was ancient for a car, and it failed inspection because part of the floor was rusted out. I took it to an auto body shop in town and paid another hundred bucks to have a floorboard welded onto the frame. See how happy I was that it passed inspection?
The owner of the auto body shop was very involved in local politics. After I switched from being a DJ to doing news full-time, I encountered him regularly and we’d discuss politics, local and otherwise. He told me he was going to run for mayor, and he wanted me to be his campaign manager! I was both flattered and dumbfounded, but between the conflict of interest and not (yet) wanting to quit my job, I had to decline. As I recall, he won a later mayoral election.
Jimmy Carter has died. I should tell about the time I asked Ted Kennedy if he intended to challenge Carter at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.