I bought my '65 GTO from a Chevy dealer in El Cajon, CA. I was on a three day pass from Fort Huachuca at the time and after thundering around the home grounds for the rest of the weekend, I drove my new trophy out to Arizona...it was a sweet ride. Shortly after I got back into the swing of things at Huachuca, one of my buddies pointed out that the left rear wheel wobbled. We discovered that the axle was torqued and I took it to the Pontiac dealer in Tucson to get repairs. That was the beginning of a weeks long running gun battle between the Chevy dealer, the Pontiac dealer, me, and finally to my rescue, The Chief. I took it out of the state so Chevy didn't want to touch it...Pontiac didn't sell it so they didn't want to touch it...everyone felt that I probably twisted it after I bought it. The whole thing blew into unbelievable proportions when it was determined that the twisted axle had caused extensive wear to the ring and pinion gears and the whole rear end needed to be rebuilt. The situation was aggrevated by the fact that I couldn't travel the 71 miles from Huachuca to Tucson if they had my car in the shop while the battle raged so I was getting more and more confused and upset. They did a partial repair so I could drive it while they argued about who would bear the cost. They wanted me to pay for the partial repair which led to the situation described in "Somebody to Love" where I was stranded in Tucson. I had several unhappy experiences with the purposely unnamed Pontiac dealer, but once the Chief stepped in, all parties agreed to listen and agree on a plan. His first question at Hatch Chevy was, "Who sold my kid that car?" When that person (someone the Chief had been doing business with for a long time) was identified his next question was, "What are you going to do to resolve this?" The Chief was not a big man, but he had a look...it communicated something like, "I can crush 12 oz steel beer cans with one hand...wanta see what I can do to you?" He was not one to threaten...but he was intimidating when he wanted to be. The salesman was the first to ask how many miles were on the car and found that it was still under warrantee and, legal to legal with Pontiac, it was decided that Pontiac would repair the rear end under warrantee and Chevy would send a check to pay for the labor on the axle replacement. Something like that. In any case, I was gonna get my car fixed. The only hurdle left was that I couldn't get off work during the day to get it to Tucson. And once again, I told you all that so I could tell you this:

While all this hoopla was transpiring, I was getting pretty close to MamaCharlie. Like Vern, I was making the trip to Tucson two or three times a week and every weekend. I asked if she would take my car to the dealer, she immediately agreed except she didn't know how to drive a stick. Well, that was no problem. I taught people how to drive every day. So that weekend, we spent the evenings cruising through residential neighborhoods learning how to start and stop and shift gears. She had a little difficulty at first. But I used the tachometer as a training device, explaining that she should keep that yellow needle above the 10 on the dial as she took off and everything would go fine. I believe in positive reinforcement in all training matters, so a good launch and smooth stop, remembering to apply the clutch at the end, earned a little hug and a little kiss. She was doing great and earning lots of rewards. This was fun !. Until she had a little problem. We were on a gravel street at a stop sign, she started off but let the clutch out a little too quick, the Goat bucked and the needle fell below the 10. She took immediate action and stabbed the gas. Tripower kicked in and in a split second that little 389 was developing all 360 advertised horsepower, the positraction was doing its best to hang on to gravel, but for a couple of seconds, we were slipping and sliding all different directions and roaring like a lion. We got stopped without any major problems...we hugged until she was ready to try again...but the fun was definitely over.

I rode back to Huachuca with Vern that night, wondering if she would have the courage to solo across Tucson to the Pontiac dealer. Vern's girl and MamaCharlie's roommate, Kathy, told me she followed her over Monday morning to drop the car off. She said MamaCharlie did a great job...no stalls...made the trip with no problems...except she went the whole way in first gear.