In Summer-early Autumn of 1958, I moved with my parents from our (then closed) Kraher's Meat Market in Kasson, MN to a new housing addition in NW Rochester, MN called "Elton Hills". Our new home was modest but at least an upgrade, I thought, from our apartment above the Meat Market in Kasson. My parents were able to reduce the purchase price of the home by agreeing to do some of the painting finishing work themselves. A fond memory is of the whole family painting the walls on a Sunday with the radio blaring Sheb Wolley's "Purple People Eater" which had hit #1 on the music charts that year. From the late 60's to Late 70's the song's name was to become the nickname of our Minnesota Vikings who , of course, sported purple uniforms.
That same Autumn 1958 or early Spring1959, I paid Everett, our next door neighbor $300 for a mint condition 1948 Chevy coupe. A photo of it in our driveway is shown below. Visible are its 1958 or 59 Minnesota license plate with number "1U 2650" [A modern comparison would be for a High School student in 2010 finding a nice 2000 model year car to drive back and forth to school]
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I needed to get my memory jogged from Wikipedia that this car had an inline 6 cylinder 90 horsepower engine that on a good day could "easily exceed 80 miles per hour without overdrive" The transmission was "a manual synchromesh 3 speed, with vacuum assisted shift, in which the 'three-on-the tree' shifter was able to be moved between gears by the slightest pressure on the lever" I don't remember its mileage.
The shifting arm was on the steering column and on the end of the shifting arm was a flat elliptically-shaped tan-colored pearlescent screw on knob. In very cold weather, the plastic knob suddenly shattered if it was touched. On two occasions, I needed to hit a local auto salvage yard to get a replacement. It must have been a common problem as 4 out of 5 junk cars I looked at had missing shift knobs.
On one of the 1st few times I drove this car to Rochester Lourdes Catholic High School, I was parallel parking and had just pulled out to fine tune the park, when, at the same time, another student drove by nicking my Chevy and also doing some damage to the side of their car. The accident was my fault but not serious.
I was interested in electronics (we only had vacuum tubes at that time) and I was in the process of studying code and theory to earn my Ham Radio License (K0RRR, which I am still licensed to use today) and I was also building a Heathkit radio transmitter. I therefore thought it would be a good idea to install a speaker in the grill of my Chevy and operate a microphone through the AM radio inside the car. I installed a switch to turn on the radio or microphone. With this setup, I could drive on the street near school and greet my fellow students as I drove by them.
I remember one nice summer evening, I was driving my Chevy and a female friend through Silver Lake Park in downtown Rochester. I stopped the car and was in the process of demonstrating my speaker phone when a Rochester police squad car pulled alongside. The policeman got out and wondered aloud what was going on. I did some careful explaining about my interest in electricity and that I installed the speakerphone to have some fun with my friends and "no, I would never use it for any other purpose". He bought my story and suggested that we should leave the park. "Yes sir!"
The car warmed up very slowly in winter. I could never figure out why, when a car engine generated so much heat, that no one could figure out how to make a heater core larger and/or efficient enough to trap a lot more of that heat for the car's occupants! I was struck getting into my friends cars (driving their parent's newer model) when we were cruising around in the colder months that I could actually feel comfortable.
I graduated from Lourdes High School in 1960, hung around a couple years to attend Rochester Community College, then headed north to St. Paul, MN to work for 3M company. When regular money was coming in, I bought a new 1962 VW Beetle having a "Gulf Blau" color and "gifted" my '48 Chevy to my dad who drove it to work (a local Supermarket). One day a city bus hit the rear end of the car giving it a sizable dent in its "tank-like" steel armor body. The car still ran fine, but I think dad either junked it or gave it away.
