See more in my Etsy shop here
Building the biggest classic car collection on Etsy
The Holden HQ SS came out in 1972 and was basically a Belmont in fancy garb, and even fancier colours – They had very seventies names like Infra Red, Ultra Violet and … Lettuce Alone for green. Lettuce Alone? Only the SS had these colours and they sold like hot cakes.
A favourite pub, a favourite car and a favourite part of Melbourne. A new addition to my Etsy shop.
I knew a farmer who had one of these, I couldn’t believe what he put in it – chickens, hay bales, fence posts. No way to treat such a lovely car. Or maybe that’s just the townie in me, maybe the country folk do do that? I should take a drive in the country some time and see what I can see. I hear it pays to keep your windows up to keep out the country smells. Worse than that, I hear you get cow pats stuck in your tyres – that would make a fine mess of the carpet in the garage. That always put me off leaving the city limits but I shouldn’t be so narrow. To be fair, we do have a TV that has sunsets and waves lapping on the beach, tweeting birds, fish tanks, you know the sort of thing. I’m sure I can select a rural scene and it would be much cleaner than the real thing …. wouldn’t smell. I don’t really need to see what they put in their cars anyway, there’s bound to be a story in the Sunday supplement some time, I’ll keep an eye out.
We met in 1997, it was love at first sight – when we started getting around together someone said to me, ‘you have to be rich or a mechanic to have one of these’. I said ‘nah, don’t worry, we’re in love’. It all went swimmingly to start with, but then those little things started chipping away, a bit of rust here, a little rattle there. Eventually it came time to take a ‘Break’. We’ve taken many breaks since those early days; my Prem goes and spends a few weeks with its mechanic, or its paint and panel friend, sometimes the auto-electrician. For me it’s just a bit of time out, get some exercise walking up to the shops or the bus stop. Sometimes I contemplate the carless life … life without Prem. Find myself a nice little e-bike, something not so complicated – OK I’ll say it, something less needy. But then comes the phone call, Prem’s ready to come home again. We have a wee drive and a bit of a chat, I rest my arm on the windowsill and think out loud ‘What a lot of nonsense, an e-bike indeed’.