By Karl Bartels

Procrastination and a dubious weather forecast had all but convinced me to skip the Friday June 4, 2010, Williamston Cool Car Night. (I state the date for reasons described below) Karen and Tom Cullimore insisted we join them, so a plan was hatched. They would drive their ‘41 Pickup, my wife, Sandy would bring her ’99 Mustang she named Jane and I would bring Grandpa’s ‘52 Chrysler Saritoga. We met at Cullimore’s, paraded into town and found parking spots a few doors down from Woods and Sons Corn Bin across the street from La Follette studio.

My Grandma and Grandpa Bartels bought the car new and special ordered the C-52 331 cubic inch V-8 Hemi engine from Snethkamp Auto Sales, in Detroit, Michigan. Jet black with dark blue interior was their color choice. As they were about to retire, this car would allow them to travel the USA as they loved to do. From their home in East Lansing, summer trips took them to every contiguous state as well as annual trips to the west coast via Route 66. This was truly Grandpa’s baby which he pampered daily. He made hundreds of notes in the service manual and kept nearly every receipt for service the car received.

Pampered is an understatement. It was never driven in the snow. They had a 1950 Ford coupe for bad weather. Grandpa would use the Chrysler’s drain oil in the Ford. Quite often between Simonize wax jobs, he would back out of the garage to let a gentle rain rinse off the dust and then quickly chamois it dry. He passed away in 1969 and I inherited Grandpa’s car when Grandma died in 1980. It is still in wonderful condition and completely original. I drive it once or twice a year and try to keep up on the maintenance a fifty eight year old car with 164,000 miles requires.

While at the show that night we browsed through the stack of documents that were in the glove box. We found copies of letters between Grandpa and the Chrysler factory discussing problems he was having with engine. Karen then found a hand written post card from the Chrysler District Service representative asking Grandpa to bring the car to Geo. Johnson Motor Sales, 150 E. Grand River, Williamston, Michigan (now the Red Cedar Grill) for his review on Friday, June 4 1954. There we sat just two blocks away on exactly the same day, Friday and date, June 4^th, 56 years later. That, we decided, was a truly remarkable coincidence. They must have fixed the problem because we easily made it home that night.