[Clayart] a milestone anniversary

[Sue Cline]

My first car was a 63 Ford Falcon, 3-on-the-tree 4-door convertible. It would have taken me through many years if I hadn’t left it in Somerset, PA, after a brutal accident on the PA turnpike when I was 19. Great car, though. Learned to drive stick shift, room for my string bass and a few friends. Great memories.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 7, 2018, at 1:26 PM, David Lyons <lyonsd at plbb.us> wrote:
> 
> My first car was a 62 Ford falcon.  3 on the tree 4 door. It never let me down, surviving my 16 year old meager driving skills.  Ahh, memories. 
> Dave Lyons 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Jun 7, 2018, at 12:00 AM, Roberta A <roberta.actor at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> What a great story - you are an exceptional artist. The car trouble
>> reminded me of two awful trips to LA, once in a VW bug with a blown 3rd
>> cylinder - we had to keep the windows open (winter, of course) due to the
>> exhaust filling the car, but we made it! The second in a Pinto with sludge
>> in the gas tank and with my 6-year-old daughter returning totally broke
>> after a week of camping. The engine would die after running exactly 5
>> minutes and would start again after about 10 minutes of letting the junk
>> settle. Didn't matter if tank was full or empty. I went down Hwy 99
>> stopping every 5 miles, trying not to freak out so I wouldn't scare her. I
>> had to get a mechanic in Bakersfield - never would have made it over the
>> Grapevine.
>> ~ R
>> 
>>> On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 3:44 PM, Gregg Lindsley <gerrg42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Today is the 40th anniversary of the day I arrived in California to begin a
>>> serious study of pottery with Master potter Dean Strawn.
>>> Having apprenticed at the Glen Echo Pottery in Glen Echo Maryland
>>> briefly, I packed my wheel and a box of ceramics monthly magazines and
>>> headed west in my purple ford falcon painted with silver military stars on
>>> the sides and brand new tires. Billy Joels "just the way you are and "Baker
>>> Street" by gerry rafferty were the number one songs on the radio, and I
>>> heard them all the way across country.
>>> On the trip out, everything was fine untill I hit texas. My car suddenly
>>> began spewing voluminous amounts of black smoke out of the back, and I
>>> limped into Amarillo Tx on a friday night  with the car only able to do 25
>>> miles an hour.
>>> So, with a deep breath and the foresight to put my earring in my pocket, I
>>> went into the truck stop  there.  Every one i talked to thought i bought
>>> bad gas in east texas.  I was provided with a number for a mechanic who
>>> would come out and fix problems. He didn't think he could, and gave me a
>>> name to go see in the morning. I went through seven shops that morning, and
>>> finally pulled into a shop that  had a dragster in it, and a guy who had
>>> nothing to do.
>>> he worked on it for a few hours, and said, ok, ready to go. so i went. 55
>>> mph! cool!  on the interstate again.  well, no. 90 miles later, it was
>>> back.  So i asked the car just to get me to Kelseyville, and so off we
>>> went. 25 miles per hour, dark smoke out the back, at night. I had to stop
>>> every 150 miles to clean the spark plugs and add 90 weight oil, but i was
>>> determined to make it.
>>> So it went for a few days, (the U.S.. is a long country!), untill one
>>> morning i hit Bakersfield. Cleaned the plugs, put in new oil. and hit the
>>> road.  by some chance, the car liked california. It did 55 miles an hour!
>>> so I drove it til it ran out of gas, just outside of Sacramento. I knew if
>>> i stopped, that would be it. slow again.  got someone to get me gas, and
>>> tried again. 25and lots of smoke. The radio was filled with panic about
>>> something called Prop. 13, and I had idea what that was about.
>>> the next day, after 10 days of driving at 25 miles an hour, I arrived in
>>> Kelseyville, at the home of Gwyn and Jon, my hosts. Jon was studying with
>>> Dean. So i had made it!
>>> the next morning I went out to see about the car, and the engine was
>>> frozen. It had gotten me here, and then collapsed in exhaustion. The
>>> potters wheel, the magazines and I were here.  Sold the car to Robbie, a
>>> local, for $200 for the new tires.   If you see a purple falcon with silver
>>> stars on the panel behind the passenger doors parked in some field, that
>>> was mine.
>>> And so the adventure of becoming a potter in California had begun, and
>>> here I am 40 years later. I can tell you, it has been an adventure!  And
>>> continues to be to this day.
>>> Stand by, there might be more exciting episodes coming along in the near
>>> future. you never know.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Gregg Lindsley
>>> Earth and Fire Pottery
>>> 10325 Brookside Drive
>>> Middletown, Ca. 95461
>>> 707-490-7168
>>> www.earthandfirepottery.net
>>> At home among the lost and found
>>> aka Gregg from Mendocino
>>> -------------- next part --------------
>>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>>> URL: <https://lists.clayartworld.com/pipermail/clayart/
>>> attachments/20180606/9287417c/attachment.html>
>>> 
>> -------------- next part --------------
>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>> URL: <https://lists.clayartworld.com/pipermail/clayart/attachments/20180606/041600a1/attachment.html>
> 
>