Old War Stories With Uncle Jay - "Flooded Out Aspen"

Originally recorded April 20, 2023.

Some time in the 80's, my grandmother would come over every Friday to take care of my sister and I, and then leave Monday. Every Friday, after we'd get home from school, we'd go out. Grocery shopping, clothing stores, whatever it was. All local stuff.

My dad had his 78 Dodge Aspen that he'd drive to Manhattan for work. For whatever reason, this particular day, he wanted to take the other car. That left the Aspen for my mother to drive. And she didn't do well. Surprising, since she used to have a late 60s, Dodge Dart with pushbutton transmission.

It was raining this Friday. We carried on as usual. Now I don't know exactly what happened, if she hit a puddle or what, or just didn't know what she was doing. We stopped at a local diner called The Lantern (which has since closed since the recording of this video, though they were open until recently). Anyway we got there, went in and ate, and came back out to the car. The car refused to start. Tried and tried and tried again.

My mother, realizing we were now in a situation, went back in the restaurant and explained to the person at the counter that the car wouldn't start. Someone who worked there offered to come out and try to start it, and he had no luck either. He offered to drive us home. I don't remember too much about this, but I think he had a Trans Am with a louvered back window.

Of course my father was none too pleased. The diner let us keep the car there in their parking lot. The next day, I went back with them. My dad looked under the hood quick in case there was anything obvious, saw nothing, got in, and the car started right up. Again, I don't know if my mother maybe hit a puddle which made the ignition wires or distributor wet, or perhaps she just flooded out the old Carter carburetor so much that there was no way it was going to start. We drove home. The car was perfectly fine. But it was sort of a traumatic experience as a little kid, not knowing what was going on.

Видео Old War Stories With Uncle Jay - "Flooded Out Aspen" канала jaykay18