Male pine siskin
Today I took Carolyn to see her new doctor for the first time as the one she had been with for many years retired. She seemed to like her, and she is in with several others in the old Nance building. They have their own lab and pharmacy, so it is pretty much one-stop shopping.
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Speaking of the Nance building, when I was little, my dad loved Buicks and Oldsmobiles. The local Olds dealer was Nance Oldsmobile and Cadillac located just out of downtown on East Main Street. It had huge neon signs on the front of the building that read Nance Oldsmobile and under that were letters just a bit smaller that read Home of the Olds 88. Every year in the early 50's, we would pile into whatever jalopy my dad had at the time, and drive to town and see the new 88's and 98's when they went on display in September. Look was all we could do, because new cars were way out of the range of wages paid in this part of Appalachia. In those days, the new car unveiling was a huge event for dealerships. A model would keep the same basic appearance for three straight years with only cosmetic changes, then the outer skins and inside trim would change completely, and each time there was usually more horsepower under the hood. Gasoline was less than twenty-five cents per gallon, so most working people could afford it. Every year, the dealerships would have searchlights, free ballons and refreshments, and later on in the decade, live entertainment which consisted anywhere from a hillbilly music band to a carnival guy with no arms that played a mean guitar with his feet and toes. The Chevrolet dealership was owned by Roy Faircloth and was a few blocks away from Nance. It always had the best entertainment and most refreshments. A couple blocks west of that was Norton Arney's Pontiac, Buick, GMC sales. Arney was pretty much a cheapskate, and didn't offer much at new model time except a hillbilly band, which in turn had a weekly half-hour tv show that was sponsored in big part by Arney Motors. The band was named Bonnie Lou and Buster. Besides Bonnie Lou and her husband Buster, other members of the group from time to time were Lloyd "ding-dong" Bell, and Chuck the Carolina Indian, along with Buster dressed as a fellow named Hump-Hyphen-Hammer with baggy pants, a too-big and too loud sport coat, and Craucho Marx eyeglasses, rubber nose, and a brush mustache. Novelty stores still carry them. Turkey in the Straw and Play me some Mountain Music were imbided upon at nearly every show and appearance. Not far from Arney was the Ford showroom, Tennessee Motors. Like Arney, they weren't big on giving anything away.
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A dose of nostalgia does me good from time to time ...
Today I took Carolyn to see her new doctor for the first time as the one she had been with for many years retired. She seemed to like her, and she is in with several others in the old Nance building. They have their own lab and pharmacy, so it is pretty much one-stop shopping.
----
Speaking of the Nance building, when I was little, my dad loved Buicks and Oldsmobiles. The local Olds dealer was Nance Oldsmobile and Cadillac located just out of downtown on East Main Street. It had huge neon signs on the front of the building that read Nance Oldsmobile and under that were letters just a bit smaller that read Home of the Olds 88. Every year in the early 50's, we would pile into whatever jalopy my dad had at the time, and drive to town and see the new 88's and 98's when they went on display in September. Look was all we could do, because new cars were way out of the range of wages paid in this part of Appalachia. In those days, the new car unveiling was a huge event for dealerships. A model would keep the same basic appearance for three straight years with only cosmetic changes, then the outer skins and inside trim would change completely, and each time there was usually more horsepower under the hood. Gasoline was less than twenty-five cents per gallon, so most working people could afford it. Every year, the dealerships would have searchlights, free ballons and refreshments, and later on in the decade, live entertainment which consisted anywhere from a hillbilly music band to a carnival guy with no arms that played a mean guitar with his feet and toes. The Chevrolet dealership was owned by Roy Faircloth and was a few blocks away from Nance. It always had the best entertainment and most refreshments. A couple blocks west of that was Norton Arney's Pontiac, Buick, GMC sales. Arney was pretty much a cheapskate, and didn't offer much at new model time except a hillbilly band, which in turn had a weekly half-hour tv show that was sponsored in big part by Arney Motors. The band was named Bonnie Lou and Buster. Besides Bonnie Lou and her husband Buster, other members of the group from time to time were Lloyd "ding-dong" Bell, and Chuck the Carolina Indian, along with Buster dressed as a fellow named Hump-Hyphen-Hammer with baggy pants, a too-big and too loud sport coat, and Craucho Marx eyeglasses, rubber nose, and a brush mustache. Novelty stores still carry them. Turkey in the Straw and Play me some Mountain Music were imbided upon at nearly every show and appearance. Not far from Arney was the Ford showroom, Tennessee Motors. Like Arney, they weren't big on giving anything away.
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A dose of nostalgia does me good from time to time ...
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