Car Number 4

I have NO connection to the 1940 Ford Coupe
in this photo. It is displayed only to show
you what a 1940 Ford Coupe looks like. I found
this photo at the Rod & Custom website.

When we last visited the string of cars that
I have owned, I had a 1939 Chevrolet that had
just finished the re-build stage. I showed up at
the Texas Public Safety office to take my driver's
license test and the troopers almost got into a
fight to see who would give me the road test and
be able to ride in the '39 Coupe.
I had the '39 in its finished stage only a few
months when a friend of my brother came to the
speedshop one day and he was driving a 1940
Ford Coupe (one of the all-time great looking
street rods). This particular '40 was a deep
metallic brown color and I fell in love with it
instantly. He checked out my '39 and we made the
swap with only a couple of hundred going his way.
The '40 Ford Couple was a head-turner and really
looked great. It too was powered by a Chevrolet
V-8 and had a 4-speed transmission in the floor.
This was the summer between the 9th and 10th
grades and I couldn't figure out why all the girls
were taking a sudden interest in me. My brother
was the 'Most Handsome Senior Boy' when he
graduated from high school, but I have never been
equal to him in looks. He took after my Dad's side
of the family and I took after Mom's.
My first day at high school saw a big group of upper-
classmen gather around my car in the parking lot. One
of the seniors told me that sophomores were not allowed
to drive cars to school. About that time one of the seniors
recognized me and said, "That's Carl Stone's little
brother"! The group looked at me and never gave me
a bit of trouble again. This was the Fall of 1959 and my
brother was a god among the car guys about this time.
In 1957 he was the National Champion in the Roadster
Class at the Finals of the National Hot Rod Association.