Part Three
by Joe Reinschmidt
Madeline walks out to the surprise of her 1955 Chevy parked at the curb. Several gentlemen residents also enjoyed seeing the restored car. Photograph by Joe Reinschmidt.“Oh my, oh my, it’s just beautiful, it’s wonderful!” said Madeline repeatedly as she saw and then walked towards the fully restored 1955 Chevy parked in the driveway at her current residence. Friday, June 8 was the day Bill Bennett surprised her with the finished product he had promised to show her when they met in February. While her memory may not always be the best, and her mind may wander, she had no problems what ever remembering her first new car and some of the details surrounding it.
“You know I was young then and thought I was hot stuff. This seemed like the kind of a flashy car that I should have,” she said. She also related how her mother, upon seeing the car, determined that Madeline needed to have a fur coat to wear when driving it. So they set out shopping and found a stylish three quarter length coat which they bought. She confided however that it wasn’t real fur but looked like it.
Bill stood there beaming as Madeline looked under the hood, walked around the car, peeked inside and with a little encouragement, got behind the wheel. She looked very proud and pretty even without a fur coat. Bill asked if she wanted to go for a short ride, with him driving, so she slid across the seat to the passenger side, Bill got in and off they went around the loop in the complex, like it was 1955 all over again.
Forty-seven years after she stopped driving her 1955 Chevy BelAir, Madeline gets another chance to get behind the wheel. Photograph by Joe Reinschmidt.
Madeline and Bill posing beside the car that connected them. Photograph by Joe Reinschmidt.
The weather was perfect and everyone’s spirits were lifted as they witnessed the event. Bill especially was thrilled, not that he had accomplished the restoration but that he had the opportunity to share that success with the car’s original owner. “Madeline’s pleasure and reaction at seeing the car was all the thanks I needed,” he said.
Madeline was a secretary at Kodak and usually rode to work with her father, or an uncle, which explained why after 10 years it only had 43,186 miles on it. Now it has about 43,246 and probably won’t accumulate very many more. And yes, for those who wondered and several who asked, the lady is Madeline Roach, from Mill Street, Spencerport.
The entourage present at the event consisted of Bill, his wife, Lynne, and his mother Joan. Martin “Pooch” Cunningham and his wife, Beverly, were also there, as was I. I think the consensus of our feelings as we watched can best be expressed by Madeline’s words that it was, “just beautiful, it’s wonderful.”
It really was.
Next: Some “Afterglow” on the car and the dealership
