
That 1949 Oldsmobile 88 was our family car when we moved to Washington in the early 1950s but it had a prior history. I have a faint memory of going to Logan with Dad to bring it home as a new car. It was painted two tone... gray on the bottom and cream color on the top. When it was still quite new Mom decided to drive it to LasVegas! She and a few girl friends were going to see a show starring their favorite singer, Vic Damone. He must have been a real lady-killer at the time! Mom arrived back home with little candy treats for Reed and I but bad news for Dad. She had wrecked the new car! The next thing I remember was getting the car back with a new paint job. It was two-tone but with orange on the bottom and cream on the top. I didn't know it at the time but Mom's favorite colors were red and orange. The car looked really snazzy painted orange. Sometime later, Mom had our livingroom couch cut in half and re-upholstered with fake leather in a bright red color. Yikes! Still later, when Mom chose the paint color for the kicthen walls in their new house out on the farm, she chose "Flamingo Red" and it looked fabulous! Even later when she chose the formica counter top color for the kitchen in Utah, she chose orange! I liked it so much that I chose the same color for our kitchen. Red and orange are vibrant, lively colors just like Mom's personality!

4 comments:
I don't think my mom inherited the flashy red/orange thing.
I have heard Bara tell about that trip to Las Vegas to see Vic Damone as she was with mom. Maybe she'll read this and tell the story from her point of view. I recall it was pretty funny...now anyway. Probably not at the time.
I remember the orange car believe it or not. Nice to hear "the rest of the story"
Bara emailed me so I will post this comment with what she recalled from the experience:
"The guys were going fishing so the girls decided to go to Las Vegas. The guys didn't know we were going. We left early in the morning. Toni Miller, Bara, Rosie and either Betty Christofferson or Marybelle Petersen. When we got close to St. George the roads were icy and lots of cars going both ways. We went to pass another car and Rosie realized she couldn't make it before the oncoming car got there. We pulled back and hit the car in front of us in the back and ran off the road hitting a telephone pole. The other car was left spinning and went off the road but did not get damaged. No police came or anything. Nobody was hurt so we just continued on our trip.
Rosie was really worried about what Blair would do but she wasn't going to tell him. He would find out eventually. I think Rosie's parents gave her the car or else she inherited money when they passed away. (not sure).
We saw and talked to Vic Damone and he was really cute and we got really good tickets. He was playing slots when we talked to him. We were going to stay all night but decided to go home after the show and beat the guys home. We monkeyed around the Flamingo until day light and then drove home. Nothing much happened on the way home and we did get home before the men.
Rosie and we girls were uptown the next day in the car and Blair drove by and stopped to talk to us and noticed the dent. Rosie told him the whole story. None of the men were mad at us. I remember it was a beautiful car and we thought we were hot stuff driving it in Las Vegas."
"I think of Rosie and Blair often and wish I could have a chat with them."
"That's the story straight from the "horses" mouth."
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