Have Americans lost all sense of their literature and culture? I knew about them when I was 6 years old.
Posted on 09/18/2012 6:20:58 AM PDT by JoeProBono
CANTON, Ohio, - A 102-year-old woman who brought her 1930 Packard 740 Roadster to an Ohio car show said she still changes her own oil and spark plugs.
Margaret Dunning of Plymouth, Mich., said at the 18th annual Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles at Glenmoor Country Club in Canton the car was in rough shape when she bought it in 1949 but it has since been restored with four upholstery jobs and 22 coats of hand-rubbed lacquer, the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal reported Monday.
Dunning said she still often finds herself crawling under the car, which was the first vehicle to ever receive a 100-point score by the Classic Car Club of America, with a funnel and an oil pan.
"I love the old cars," she said. "I love the smell of gasoline. It runs in my veins."
"The lines of a Packard car are very artistic as far as I'm concerned. My family drove Packards, and I was very proud of the fact. I guess I got indoctrinated," she said.
Dunning, who has been driving since she was 8 years old and was about 20 when her Packard rolled off the assembly line, said motoring in her everyday car, a 2003 Cadillac, sometimes gets her in trouble for speeding.
"I have lead in my feet," she quipped. "It disturbs the policemen very badly, but it doesn't bother me at all."
Have Americans lost all sense of their literature and culture? I knew about them when I was 6 years old.
That's me in the rumble seat at sweet sixteen along with my best friend and my dog (you figure out which was which.....LOL)
Leni
“Rumble” because you were sitting right over the rear axle.
My mother’s friend was killed in a rumble seat when the car was in an accident and the rumble seat folded up (closed) on her. They might have been fun, but they were dangerous, too.
Thanks, had never actually seen or noticed one, so didn’t know what to make of it in the one photo that had it.
Absolutely true. Unfortunately, lots of if not most things which are the most fun are also potentially very lethal.
Great! I’ll make sure she sees that.
Didn’t they make engines for PT boats also?
My dad worked at a Packard dealership, and the first car I can remember riding in was a 1936 Packard coupe. 
Dad always told us that Cadillacs were nothing but Chevys with chrome plated lock washers. ;~))
True story. About 10 years ago, in Long Island, an elderly lady was killed under well, weird circumstances. She had a Jack Russell which she took everywhere with her. One day she was going out. Her garage door opener wasn’t working. She put the dog in the car, opened the garage door manually, backed the car out, stopped it, and got out to close the garage door. The Jack Russel, as they are want to so, jumped up, to put his front legs on the dash board. He hit the shift lever , on the steering column, knocked it into DRIVE. The car went forward, crushing the poor woman between the car and the garage door, which she had just finished closing.
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