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MY FaVoRITe caR
During my first summer in California, my three cousins, Sonny, Irving and Howard, chipped in with me to buy a 1923 Buick Phaeton for $16. We named her Nellie and she was a beauty. I was sixteen and the only one with a driver’s license, so I drove everyone everywhere, but, as my partners, my cousins paid for gas.
I also drove around my Uncle Mike’s harlequin Great Dane, a huge beast named Duke. The car was a convertible, and Duke would sit in the back seat with his enormous paws on top of the front seat. I often took my Bubby Levine out for a spin. She was a tiny woman and seeing her in the front, with the gigantic head and paws of a Great Dane leaning over her, was a sight to behold.
Years later, during World War II, my cousins enlisted in the Army Air Corps and I enlisted in the Navy. I’ll always remember that carefree summer of 1936, with our Buick Phaeton, because four of us went to fight in the war, but only two of us returned.
Uncle Mike’s dog Duke was a favorite passenger in my Buick Phaeton when I squired Harold and others around town. .