1950 Ford Custom

By Jay Hirsch

What happened at a New Yorks City car show in 1962 to a teenager not yet old enough to drive would stay in the teen’s mind for the next 16 years. In 1978 that teen, Ray, was a young man who was working at a new car dealership. He had some extra money and decided to track down that custom green 1950 Ford he had first laid his eyes upon in 1962. 

Ray had written down the owners name and kept it filed in his Rolodex. A Rolodex was a desktop card-filing system where a person kept people’s names, address and phone numbers in alphabetical order. This was the “dark ages,” before computers, smart phones, and the internet. Many people still had black-and-white TVs in their homes, and some movies were still made in black and white.

The name of the owner that Ray had on file was Jim Karcher, who lived in Connecticut. In 1957, Jim had taken this 1950 Ford convertible, whose top did not operate, and proceeded to chop the front windshield and frame six inches, and he did the same to …

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