In the summer of 1968 I took stock of my life as a college (about-to-be) sophomore and noticed something missing...a car! I'd been a freshman, living in a dorm, and walking to class, in the snow, uphill both ways! I needed a car. Plus, I'd somehow managed to find an apartment off campus and a couple of guys to move in with during the upcoming year. I don't remember what my summer job was that year, it may have been in the meat packing plant, but I know I had some money. But not enough. I found this really cool 1965 Mustang at a home dealership and got my dad to co-sign a loan for $1,600 to buy that car. I had a blast, it wasn't a racing mustang but it had a 289 cubic inch motor with a huge two barrel carburetor and it would go fast. Originally, it was painted burgundy with a black leather interior. One day it was parked in front of the apartment and someone slid (ice and snow) into it and crushed the side. I had it repainted in Chevy Racing Yellow and it just looked fast (and cool). Sadly, I only kept the car until the spring of 1971 when I sold it for $1,200 to put into my brand new Dodge Charger.

Last Thursday, I did a quick walkabout with a friend in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. That's a museum honoring inventors and it's located in the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). The museum isn't part of the PTO but rather a separate non-profit business. One of the displays was two Mustangs, both driver side, but joined in the middle like one car...like a Brit Mustang on the right. The right side was the cockpit like layout of a 2018 Mustang, on the left was the driver's side of a 1965 Mustang, in black. Talk about memory lane, wow, I had some very, very cool times in that car during the two plus years I owned it and most of them came rushing back as I eased into the driver's seat to take this image. The seatbelt was invented and first put on a car in about 1963. The 65 Mustang was one of the first cars in production to have the seatbelt. I can still remember my neighbor across the street, Dan Doty, whose mother had a white convertible 1964 1/2 Mustang. The first model and certainly the first in my hometown.

   1965 Mustang Inventors Hall of Fame1965 Mustang Inventors Hall of Fame in the PTO