Old Blue is Home

Here's a story. It's long, but important to our family so I'm posting it for posterity sake. Feel free to not read if you want, but I think it's pretty cool.

It starts a million years ago when my dad was a teenager :) First off let me give you a little background on my dad. You'd never know it, but my dad's father died of cancer when my dad was 6, and his sister died at the age of 16 from a heart defect just 9 months later. This left my grandma to be a single parent (with no education) to my dad and his 3 other sisters. My grandma worked hard, but they had very little. One of the good things my dad learned from this was that he had to work for things. He worked lots of jobs (the main ones I remember him talking about were being a "soda jerk" and bagging groceries at a local grocery store). At one point he worked construction to earn enough money to buy a car. He bought himself a powder blue 1952 Chevrolet Deluxe. He loved it. Unfortunately, a short time later he had to sell his "52" to be able to go on his mission. This brings me to the next chapter of the story.

Every year on our birthday we had the typical family birthday party with presents and cake. There was one little thing that was different about our rituals. After "Happy Birthday" had been sung, and just before you blew out the candles, my dad would say "Wish for a '52 for your Dad". For years I didn't even know what that meant, but I have to admit many times I did, just because I thought that's what you did. Well, wishes or not, one day in Jan. 1991 my dad went outside to leave work (at Phoenix College) to see none other than a powder blue 1952 Chevy Deluxe sitting across the street with a for sale sign on it. My parents decided it was meant to be and, after promising the woman he bought it from he wouldn't let his teenagers drive it, they bought it for $4000.00. Thus "Old Blue" became a member of our family. We were all so excited. We went for rides. (We bought it Jan. 10th 1991, and for my birthday party that weekend we piled about 9 of my friends into Old Blue and went for a drive. It was so exciting.) Dad drove it to church, and to sock hops, and soon the whole neighborhood knew Old Blue well. At one point the tire skirts were stolen. My dad was the stake pres. at the time, so the youth of the stake worked to raise money and bought him new skirts. The whole youth of the stake then felt very connected to Blue. My dad kept his promise and never let his teenagers drive it, except my brother to 1 prom. We, and some of my siblings, even took engagement and wedding pics with Old Blue. She really was part of the family.

Well, Blue got older and a few things gave out, but we loved her still. Then, one night 3 years ago Old Blue was stolen from my parents driveway. It was devastating, not only to my parents, but to the whole family, and to much of the neighborhood. After waiting as long as possible, hoping she'd show up somewhere, my parents finally settled things with the insurance company getting only the $4000.oo they paid for Blue back. It was very, VERY sad.

Then a few months ago, after completely having lost all hope, a Phoenix Detective called to ask some questions about Old Blue. After a couple of months of phone calls and sending pics, the detective called and said they had for sure found Old Blue in California! We were ecstatic! It was unbelievable! We were so happy we would get her back. Then a couple of days later the insurance company, State Farm, called to say that their policy is that they don't return stolen cars...the SALVAGE THEM. We were more heartbroken than you can imagine. My parents immediately started working every angle they could to get Blue back (who salvages a classic car!) and the rest of us started praying for Blue. After hitting wall after wall of people saying there was nothing they could do my parents decided to call the news stations to see if that would help with getting anywhere. Channel 12 responded and they began working on things right away. After a couple of weeks, and Channel 12 deciding to do a story on this whole situation State Farm FINALLY agreed to let my parents buy the car back. WHAT A RELIEF! We were so excited to know that Blue would really FINALLY be coming home. My parents had already planned to spend a weekend in California so they set it up to come check out Blue to be sure it was really her and be sure she wasn't a lost cause after so much time. I'm happy to report that she is a little worse for ware, but nothing that can't be worked on, and she returned home to us last week! It was a long road, but we're so happy to have her back. It literally feels like a member of the family has come home. We are once again enjoying very short rides, and loving every minute of it. My boys are really loving her. Jameson asks about "Papa's big car" all the time. He loves to go for rides in it. Welcome home Old Blue. We missed you. Here are pics.

Old Blue with the people who helped her get home. (left) The Phoenix detective who did all the work to find her (right) the guy in California who did all the paperwork and shipped her home. They were great!The boys love to be in Old Blue and go for rides.Piling in for the boys first EVER ride in Blue.Jameson was SO excited! Check out the look on his face.Papa driving Old Blue again. I love the look on his face too. It looks just like Jameson's, excited as can be. I love to see it. Especially for my dad who has never needed, or asked for much. Glad to have you home Old Blue. You will now be parked in the back yard :)