OUR MERC

By Joe Kozmic

 The title of this article refers to the license plate on our 1953 Mercury Monterey.  The plate on our ‘37 Ford Coupe reads “OUR FORD”. 

Back in ‘09 a few of us went to the Eastern National Meet in Connecticut, almost 1,000 miles one way.  We took the ‘37 which I have had since 1975.  I bought it from our beloved Len Vinyard for $2,000.  (Hey Len, did you put the title in the mail yet???  Postage is more than 12¢ now ya know)!!  Anyway, I digress.  I love the car but it beat the hell out of us on the drive; took me almost a month to straighten out. 

I mentioned in passing to my good friend, our editor, membership chairman, and church elder in general, that I was going to have to get a better cruiser for National Meets - been to a good 20 or so.  So he got on the Internet (he still tells me it’s going to catch on).  This gentleman up in Minnesota was selling a ’53 Mercury.  This was the end of January 2010.  It looked like one hell of a nice car, so I was 99.9% sure I was going to buy it.  I got on the phone & told him we were coming up to look at it.  He told me that his ad for the car would appear in Hemmings the next month and I knew it would go fast.  I went and got a cashier’s check, put in his name, Tom Halfpenny who turned out to be a real nice guy.  I called expert tech adviser Dan Pudelek and he, Ken Bounds and I went for a ride - almost 500 miles.  It was colder that a well digger’s hemorrhoids but we went anyway; lots of snow around but the roads were clear. 

We got to Tom’s place and I noticed he had Viet Nam Vet plates on his car in the driveway.  We went inside his house, introduced ourselves, and went into garage to see the Mercury.  Wow!  I’m just glad I didn’t pee my pants because it was about 5 degrees outside and it seemed colder in the garage; it would have frozen before it hit floor.  We looked the car over and found that it was really nice.  Tom told us that he missed a Dearborn award at the 2007 Central National Meet in Winona, MN, by two points.  I asked Tom what he could do for a Polish veteran.  We had a deal!  We signed all the paperwork and the Merc was mine.  No matter how badly I wanted to drive the car back to Illinois, the salt and slush on the streets, along with the threat of snow brought me to my senses.  We returned home, found a reputable antique vehicle carrier, and in a few days the Mercury was in its new garage. 

In the spring Ken & I fixed a few of the items that Tom got gigged for in Winona. In June we drove the car to the Eastern National Meet in Charlotte.  I entered the Merc in Concourse class, and got a Dearborn Award - oops almost wet my pants again.  The January Road Chatter had a recap of 2010 driving tours and the Mercury was on every one of them without even a hiccup.  I put on almost 4,000 miles last year and Nell & I enjoyed every one of them.  I had 2 Lincoln Town Cars and I swear it rides that good. 

We have a good beer & burger place we go in Bristol off highway 47 and go there 7 or 8 times in summer for the hell of it.  I think it’s about 35 miles each way, but who cares; that’s why God put wheels on them.  Can’t wait for Spring to go touring and bumming around again.  I wish I could have bragged about all the work I put into the restoration but can’t.  Mr. Tom Halfpenny pretty much took care of everything.  So come on fellas no one knows how good the burgers are in heaven or how cold the beer is.  Might even be a shortage of Flathead parts.  Get in your flathead and take your honey out for a beer & burger and I guarantee she will like and enjoy it. 

The best & good touring, Joe Kozmic.