Ed’s 1951 Packard and a Frightful Accident in 1957

Attached is a newspaper advertisement from April 1957 where my grandfather Garten is advertising seven used vehicles for sale at his Ford dealership -- each of which could be bought for $295 each.

The first one noted is a 1951 Packard.  There is a story connected to that particular car, a story that but for the hand of God could have been tragic.

My father had abandoned his family by late 1956 and my grandfather (his father) agreed to loan a used vehicle from Garten Motors Ford to my mother, who had no vehicle.  Until the divorce was finalized around early 1958, grandfather would have one or another vehicle delivered to our home twelve miles outside of town.  Then a few weeks later or so mother might receive a call from her soon-to-be ex-father-in-law saying that he "had a buyer" for the used vehicle he'd loaned her and needed to have the car back, but he'd loan her another one.

 

So in this ad, I found the exact Packard that he loaned my mother and in which she drove me and my sister to the West Virginia State Fair.  As one nears the town where the state fair was and still is held there is a long and steep one mile downhill stretch -- my mother got about half way down the hill, applied the brakes, and the pedal went to the floor.  I was sitting in the front seat, my five year old sister in the back hugging the back of the front seat as my mother screamed to me: "No brakes, what do I do?????"  

I had just turned 10 years old so what the hell did I know what to do, but I replied: "Mother, pump the brake, pump the brake."   No help of course as I assume a brake line had punctured (don't think that '51 Packards yet had so-called safety brakes -- diagonal brakes).  

Bottom line to the story: Near the bottom of the hill -- no idea how fast the Packard was going at that point -- mother sideswiped a tree, bounced off and came to rest with the hood headed into a telephone pole.  My sister came over the front seat and hit her head on the metal dash and for whatever reason physics had in mind that day, I slid under the dash.  We were all taken to hospital a mile away, badly bruised and with some cuts on our arms and heads. 

Later, grandfather sent a wrecker to tow away the now totalled Packard.  Let's just say "it never got sold" and I am lucky to be still living at age 73.

Ed