A Day Late and A Dollar Short

Many of the car enthusiasts who come to our Wednesday night cruises at the Burger King in Waupaca, Wisconsin are guys who work at automotive businesses in that city, which is 13 miles south of Iola. A few weeks ago, they were all talking about how Neuville Motors - a Pontiac-GMC-Dodge dealership - had bought the Chevy dealer and the Jeep dealer. I was particularly fond of the latter - an outfit called Stieb's Jeep - because I had once did an article about their well-kept, older dealership building. At one time, Hudsons had been sold there and, later, AMC cars. The old Hudson dealership was on my mind when I took my '48 Pontiac to the Zero to 60 Garage (www.zeroto60garage.com) to have some brake work done. Zero to 60 is located in a cool old Ford dealership building and when I got there, it dawned on me that maybe I could buy the old Hudson dealership and set up a similar, but much smaller, collector-car repair business. I dreamed and dreamed about this for several days and decided to write to Harold Stiebs, who had owned the Jeep dealership. Well, it seems I was too late. Yesterday I drove past and the lights were on. A man in mechanic's clothing was working inside and soaped on the window were the words "Mike's Auto Repair." As usual, I was a day late and a dollar short. Of course, I wish Mike all the luck in the world with his new auto-repair operation. In fact, I hope he's so successful, he needs a new building real soon. Then, maybe, I can buy the old building and kind of "live the dream." What could be cooler than having your own Hudson dealership? Just ask my old friend Jack Miller, of Ypsilanti, Mich., about that.