AntiqueCarNut.com

This story goes back a long way!! Part of the history of us, Glyn and Belva Verzatt. This ’38 Chevy Master 2 door was my first car and was I ever proud of it!! It was set up to run!! The engine was rebuilt with .30 or .40 over bore, aluminum pistons, dual intake and exhaust, flywheel lightened by 18 or 22 pounds and it might have had 235 powerglide rocker arms. It had skirts and full chrome hubcaps to set off it’s appearance!! I owned it when Belva and I were married in December of 1952, not long after she had graduated from high school. I didn’t get to drive it very long at that time, because Uncle Sam invited me to visit Korea with a bunch of other young men!!

A friend of mine owned this car and I knew at some point he was going to sell it and I wanted to be the buyer!! He decided to sell it at just the right time for me!! It would be my third college car and I wanted it to be really nice so I immediately had it painted the original Dartmouth Green[medium green], had beautiful seatcovers made and installed, and skirts as an added touch!! It was in great mechanical condition and served me well through the remainder of my college years. I sure wish I owned it now!!

When my wife, Alice, was growing up her dad lost a great part of his eye sight due to cataracts and although he had a nice 1934 Lincoln 4 door sedan, he just could not see well enough to drive it. Alice’s Mother didn’t drive, so the car just sat for about 18 years and deteriorated. Hence , Alice never learned to drive. In 1959, after 6 years of marriage, I decided that one way or another, she was going to learn how to drive, so I bought her this car and told her it was just going to sit in front of the house until she learned to drive, which she eventually did. The car was a two tone lemon and off white color with a leather interior.

I got the bug to own a new car in March of 1952 and one day while enroute from my hometown, Enid, Oklahoma, to Sheppard AFB, Texas, I spotted this medium gray beauty on the showroom floor of the Chevy dealer in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Other than whitewalls, full wheel discs and a deluxe hood ornament, it was loaded with accessories! It took Alice and I on our honeymoon through Colorado and also a trip out to and up the west coast and home to Oklahoma. The original tires had 46,000 miles on them when I sold it in 1953. My Dad, Ted O’Connor, is shown in this picture taken in Yellowstone National Park.

Immediately after college graduation, along with 10 other graduates, I became an air force officer stationed at Sheppard Air Force base, Texas. All my buddies were buying new cars, but I just was not comfortable with buying a new one, so I bought this 3 year old beauty from a long time friend who happened to be a used car salesman. It only had 32,000 miles on it and looked and ran like right off the showroom floor.

This was the second car I purchased. I bought it the second semester I was in college at Oklahoma A & M College. It never required any mechanical maintenance even after making many trips around Oklahoma for one reason or another and I owned it about 2 years eventually selling it to my Grandfather as he had totaled his car. As I remember I paid $450.00 for it and sold it to him for $350.00 to give him a good deal. The car was tan with red wheels.

I bought a loaded 1929 Model A 4 Door Sedan when I was 14 years old. It was black and beautiful-really a nice looking and nice running car. Financially, times were not good for my Dad when I bought the car and sadly the engine in his car cratered shortly after I acquired the Model A. Dad just didn’t have the money to repair his car so one day he said, “Jim, I hate this, but I just have to commandeer your car”, I just have no choice!! Dad was a fairly rapid driver and one day on the 18 mile trek to his sand and gravel plant, he hydroplaned the car on a culvert and when it came down after being in the air, the body broke in two just behind the windshield. We wired it up with # 9 wire and drove it that way for a couple of months until Dad found a coupe body with a rumble seat. The body needed a paint job bad and that is what you see after painting was completed. Upon graduation from high school, myself and 3 of my buddies drove this baby out to California and back to our home in Waynoka, Oklahoma. I sold it in 1948 for $55.00 at an auction in Stillwater, Oklahoma.