This car hardly ever ran. The weather in Colorado is way too cold for this kind of vehicle. But I sure looked like a rock star sitting behind the wheel, especially when the top was down… even if the car never left the curb!
Back in The Contents Are: days, my friend, Ted, showed me the sales brochure of the car he wanted; a very inexpensive MG Midget sports car in British Racing Green. I think it cost all of a couple thousand dollars or so, but I could not qualify for the loan even though we were playing steadily at Al’s Lounge. So my dad tried to talk me out of buying it but finally cosigned for me. The thing hardly ever ran.
Nice guy that he was, I believe I flaked on Dad and stopped making payments so that he essentially bought it for me. Believe me, I am not proud of that. Mom said later, the only amends he wanted was to see me become successful (which I eventually did in IT Project Management) and buy my own house. Finally at the age of 52 I bought my first condominium on Chalda Ct. in Marin Cove, San Rafael, out by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright designed Civic Center before he passed away in 1997.
I am not sure where this was taken, but I am leaving the building with my yoga mat. You can just see the hood of the old Chevy van we used to pull the trailer with.
When I joined Silver Laughter, we needed something to pull our trailer full of equipment. So again I had to go to Dad for help with buying a Chevy van that had a trailer hitch. I worked on the inside and built a partition so we could put the guitars in the very back and keep them somewhat warm in those very cold Midwest winters. Then inside the cab in the back I built a platform for a mattress and made a bed that ran the width of the interior. Carl, our sound man usually slept back there during our road trips. There was also a little nook for a small television and a small closet underneath behind the driver’s seat,. and we carpeted the floor. It was a very cozy setup; a place to take girlfriends if the band was rooming together. Add the CB radio so we could communicate back and forth between the van and Jon’s Pinto, and we were ready to hit the road. Shortly after Ken and I got to California, it stopped running and had to be hauled away.
I have not had a speeding ticket yet, though they say red attracts police! The hard top folds down into the trunk.
Over the years I have had a lot of jobs and a lot of cars. But my love for convertibles has brought me back to the one I own now, a 2005 Mercedes SLK 350. It only had 15K miles on it and looked like new. I looked at a 2012 in December, but they had changed the body type. I didn’t like the nose as much as this one. No, I don’t pull the boat with it!
Though it’s not music related, I thought I would share the old photo from The Contents Are: Colorado Experience that was sent to me by Craig Hute from his archives. In the picture at the top it is sitting in front of the house our band rented on Apple Blossom Way in Westminster, Colorado. We had a lot of great jams there.
Mick Orton
PS. I took my Fender Stratocaster in to get the action adjusted. Looks like I am going to start playing and writing again!
Categories: History
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