...and they say a Timex can take a licking??? Read this!

I purchased a 1986 2 door Buick Somerset when I was 17 heading right into my rebellion stage, and thus was quite a stage! I paid a great price of $2300 for this perfect white paint job with black tinted window and chrome bumpers. This WAS a sleek car.

Growing up in Montana one of the prime things teens do for fun is partying it up in the mountains on weekends, finding place no one has been before! Now getting to these mysterious places takes some thought and one usually has to cross a river in order to proceed. What "smarter" ones would do of course was park their cars on the dirt roads and hop in the back of a 4x4 and cross the river. But me? Oh no, "If your 4x4 can do it, then so can my car! And it did! Many, many, many times!

At 123,000 miles my computer chip shorted out and the car spent some time at a repair shop while I tried to gather up the $800 is was going to cost me to get my car fixed at my job at Orange Julius which paid a mere $4.25 an hour. Once I finally gathered the cash my beautiful car was parked outside this garage to be worked on the next morning and of course the alarm wasn't set. My poor car was broken into with a big rock smashing out the rear passenger window. The contents inside literally ripped out. Apparantly the shop wasn't liable for this break in. I had full coverage insurance of course, but I was 17 and a check for $1500 didn't go back into the car. So the car was given a brand new card board window that was spray painted black.

And onward we went many a nights "cruising". We girls ,of course, meeting boys in big Dodge trucks that I was sure my car could certainly whip! And so I raced one up the main street in town and none the less getting caught by the POLICE. Now I knew I'd been spotted so of course turned quickly and began a little chase as to lose this police officer I was sure was going to give me a ticket. With the big Dodge trailing behind we weaved in and out of blocks at a speed more than the limit I'm sure until I finally pulled into the high school parking lot, and there realized something terrible had happened to my car. I couldn't turn it to the left at all. Finally I was able to but the poor car was never the same. The brakes had so much air in them instead of stopping at a stop sign I would "roll" a little past literally standing on the pedal. The steering wheel had a mind of it's own and literally steered itself from then on. I could actually make it spin all by itself.

A few years pass and I land myself a great job and buy a new truck. Unfortunately my precious Buick wouldn't be accepted for trade. ( I wonder why not?) So I just kept the car parked in front of my house. I worked out of town 6 days a week and while I was gone left my house to 2 room mates. Coming back one evening I realized my Buick had disappeared, only to walk in the door with phone ringing and a voice saying "I swear I didn't do it!" The person who had taken the car rear ended a Nova! The front end was never fixed, but that car still ran.

Soon after I decided to move from Montana to Nevada. I loaded up a
U-haul, the back of my new truck, and my car. I drove my truck, a friend in the U-haul and a friend in the Buick and we headed for Nevada. My Buick ended it's long life on the highway outside Wells, NV. There it sat in a parking lot until I could rent a dolly to come back and get it which I did and towed it to my destination. All that it was, a timing belt! There my dear car was laid to rest, given to a mechanic as she deserved and she has never been seen again.

Now that's one heck of a ride!