Note from the Pubs Chairman:

A few years ago, I asked for stories about first cars or LBCs.  Time seems to have established that most of have arrived at our current means of locomotion by Immaculate Conception gauging by the number of stories about firsts I’ve received.  This is one from October 2012.

The other love in my life and it's still that way today (My little red Triumph TR-3).

By Jerry Sicard

I was a young fellow of 18 growing up in the Midwest, south of Chicago, in the town of Kankakee IL. Just out of high school, driving a ‘53 Nash Rambler (yep, Dad said that was a good sensible car for a high school boy).  When my best buddy from school showed up at my house with a very shiny TR-3, red with chrome wire wheels well to say the least, I was bitten.  Back in ‘59 some of the local auto dealers would carry the British sports cars in their showroom to lure in more customers. The Ford/Hudson dealer there, south of Chicago, "Jim Moran’s Courtesy Motors" had Triumphs.  My brother was home on leave from the Marines.  My dad had died a couple of years before, so I talked Walt into co-signing for me, because I just had to have that Triumph. Visualize this, driving a used ‘53 Nash Rambler (what a chic mobile, right) which I bought when I was a sophomore in high school for $550.00, you can understand the overwhelming excitement of driving a real sports car, a red TR-3. Brand new! (Hey girls, here I am!)  That TR was a tough ride. I ran her at Road America, dragged her at route 30 dragstrip Schereville, Ind, lost my license three times getting caught racing on the back roads in Illinois (back then they only took your license for 3 months at a time). Married my high school sweetheart and of course as the babies came along the Little Triumph had to go. Driving her in those Mid-west Winters was not a problem, or so it seemed, but remembering the drives at speed with the top bulging out and the snow blowing in and the heater going full blast, (which was doing about as much good as an "old lady breathing on your leg") I don't think that would be as inviting today as it was then.  But as a youth, with your best girl beside you everything was O.K. I traded my TR for a ‘58 Chevy and never saw her again. I still have the window sticker, The Triumph in 1959 TR-3 cost $2,675.00 and with the accessories - heater $45.00, whitewall tires $30.00, and tonneau cover $35.00, my Little Red Triumph in 1959 sold for $2,785.00 (a pretty good sum for a meat cutter).  I remember, though, there were times when i didn't have money to gas her up and go even though gas was 27 or maybe 32 cents a gallon (had to make that car payment) so the next best thing was staying home and giving her another coat of wax. But you know what, I really didn't mind ‘cause I had my Triumph.

I often wonder where she might be sitting today, would she be all pretty in someone's garage or maybe she wasn't so lucky and is rusting away next to a barn in the Midwest. I do hope it's the former, In the late ‘50's in the flatlands of the Midwest, I was growing up, trying to figure out who I was.  I was making memories and my Little Red Triumph was a big part of that scene. I didn't realize it then, but I do now.  Thanks "Little Red Triumph".

     Now let’s forward to 1998.  My wife and I were driving to Illinois to pick up a TR-6 that I had bought sight unseen except (here we go again?) for a few pics from my "MG buddy” up there. On the way, my wife saw what looked like a couple of rusty MGs in a field.  We went back the next day to find that they were Peugeots.  The old man who owned the farm said that his boy (who lived a couple of hours away) had a Triumph that he thought he might sell.  He didn't know exactly the year but thought it might be an old one. I called and finding that it was a ‘58 TR, I had to hold back my enthusiasm. Long story shortened.  He had two girls entering college and I'm sure the money would be used.  We agreed on a price.  He described what condition it was in and told me he has had the car since his college days, so it had been sitting in the garage for 16 yrs. He figured he'd never get around to restoring it. One month later my wife and I went back to Evansville IN., met my good friend Denny and trailered it back to North Carolina.  Except for no interior and wire wheels that needed to be trued up, my new acquisition was in pretty good condition. With the help of a jar as a gas tank, Denny and I had her running the day after we got her home. She's still in my garage today, and anytime we ask, she's always ready to go.  She's not my first "Little Red TR-3 but sitting behind the wheel, listening to that throaty exhaust all the memories of 54 years ago seem to be right here again.  Life Is Good.