…is a brand new shiny red super stock Dodge. So go the lyrics to The Little Old Lady From Pasadena who had a pretty little flowerbed of white gardenias. (now insert my leadoff line).
TLOLFP was a hit for Jan and Dean reaching number three on the Billboard chart in 1964. I turned fifteen that year and still remember a lot of the lyrics. Just four years later, I went to work for the company that had made that Dodge, the Chrysler Corporation. Although we made some of the famous muscle cars in Fenton, I never helped build any of them. But I did help to build, drive, test, etc., many Dodge Ram trucks. My fifth is currently parked behind my house.
Wikipedia has an interesting article about the folklore behind Jan and Dean’s hit. It is fiction, of course, but it shares a common fantasy which has long been very popular and still is today. That fantasy is the idea of finding a rare or exotic vehicle in a broken down old garage. Barn finds, some are called. The internet is loaded with examples.
I am a sucker for these. I’ve watched or read about far too many to ever recall over the years. There must be a large audience for this sort of thing. Now videographers on YouTube treat pretty much any rusted out hulk as if it were a Bugatti.
So given that I am a huge fan of the fantasy described above, can you imagine my surprise when one of these “barn finds” turned up just two doors from a house that I have owned for the last 33 years?
Noland and Mary Humphreys and their son Dave were my neighbors and the owners of the garage behind their home in the 3100 block of Edgar. It is an old garage but not rickety. Noland could be described as a collector. I am certain that he had many items of value. Not the least of which was a vintage Airstream trailer that was parked directly in front of the garage for as long as I knew him.
Noland and, I assume, Mary are both gone now. Their son, Dave, sold the house, garage and contents. After they moved the Airstream last year and got into the contents of the garage, they discovered a 1969 Camaro Rally Sport. I was stunned. It had been there the whole time.
I don’t know how many miles the Camaro had on it. The engine size was a 307. We can tell from the photos. I don’t have any more information about this find than I have included. I would like to have that information so hopefully this post will find the new owner.
Now I wonder how many more finds like this are out there? Who knows?
Noland’s 1969 Rally Sport Camaro.
Noland had retired from General Motors. I don’t know if that had any thing to do with why he had this Camaro?
Nice shot of the interior.
This is nice shot to end with. The rear end, that is. Much thanks to neighbor, Paul Griesedieck for these images.
I’ll go out with this image from my Chrysler days which ended after 2001. These are my good buddies, all second shift plant auditors. L to R: Duffy, Smitty, Smitty, Andy and Yours truly.
It is summer! See you at the pool.
Doug Houser July 9, 2024
The City of Brentwood Board of Aldermen voted unanimously July 17, 2023, to approve a $436 million redevelopment. The redevelopment area consists of approximately 77.2 acres located on both sides of Manchester Road between Mary Avenue (just east of Brentwood Boulevard) and Hanley Road in Brentwood.
On June 21, 2023, the Brentwood Redevelopment Corporation held a public meeting to review the proposed Manchester Road Corridor Redevelopment Area Development Plan. At this meeting, the Brentwood Redevelopment Corporation recommended by a vote of 5 to 1 that the Board of Aldermen approve the plan. On July 5, 2023, the Board of Aldermen held a public hearing regarding the Development Plan and the proposed Master Redevelopment Agreement. The July 5 meeting included a first reading of the proposed ordinance.At the July 17, 2023, Board of Aldermen meeting, the Board held a second reading of the proposed ordinance and voted unanimously to approve the Master Redevelopment Agreement.After the September 19 meeting, the City of Brentwood began the process of negotiating an agreement with Green Street. The Armory, planned as a huge St. Louis entertainment center, closes indefinitely. St. Louis Public Radio | By Jeremy D. Goodwin Published Sept. 25, 2024 at 5:15 p.m. CDT. “At some point, you know, you got to start telling the truth, you got to fess up and take responsibility for your actions and, and for the people and the lives that you’ve affected,”
Calling out Truth
The entire Manchester Corridor is “blighted,” Missouri law allows using eminent domain when taking property is necessary for a legitimate public purpose. Maplewood Special Business District is looking blighted. The old Maplewood City Hall on Sutton has sticks holding up the second-floor windows and has never been painted after being replaced with new windows. Many of the second-story windows along Manchester have not seen a coat of paint in decades. Brick needs tuckpointing. Maplewood’s Manchester Rd. It is a drag and continues to appear as a run-down area and the building owners are slum lords.
Doug, how do I get in touch with you? I own this car now.
So what happened to the Camaro? I ask because I had a 68 Camaro that same color when I was in high school. I still don’t really know how I was able to buy it but I gave $1500 for it in 1971. It had a rebuilt 327 motor that ran well. It was about as basic as it could be. No power windows-if they were around then,, no power steering and a basic AM radio. I spent almost all my money I made on that car. Had to upgrade to an 8 track tape player and me and another guy figured out how to wire it up, install at least 2 speakers in the rear window area, and maybe just had a speaker sitting on the floor in the front. Still remember listening to the James Gang (Funk 49 I think it was) go from speaker to speaker.
Very cool,Doug!!
When I saw the title of this article, I thought it might be about the old airplane that was parked in a hangar/shed on , I think, Moller St. I saw it when the sons were having a big yard or estate sale. I’m pretty sure they had already sold the plane, but it was pretty cool to see it there in that big ole shed/hangar.
Patty, are you kidding? I don’t know anything about this airplane. This sounds like a story that might be connected to the Beletz brothers but they lived on Oxford.
Here’s another one, Doug!! You’d have to drive to NM to pick it up though!! 😕
https://www.facebook.com/share/M5uLRWpT7edzuVR4/?mibextid=kL3p88
Hey Sherman, I won’t try to beat you out of that Nash Metropolitan. That’s the polar opposite of this ’69 Camaro!
This one comes with a Playmates 8-track featuring Beep Beep.
Ed, from memory, I think you’re probably right about the 8-track. Remember the 4-tracks? I don’t know about the Playmates but the Beep Beep was Mopar…the Roadrunner!
Playmates had a song called either Beep Beep or Little Nash Rambler released in 1960. It’s a funny story about a little Nash Rambler beating some pompous guy in his Cadillac. And, yep, I had a 4 track too.