The True West Aerobus

November 21, 2011

I have a neighbor, Matt Grace, who has a bunch of tricked out bikes and cars. I often see him on Old Stage Road stylin' with muscle cars and chopped bikes of all kinds. In fact, it's kind of a daily treat: "What the hell is Matt drivin' today?"

Earlier this year Matt dropped by and showed me a couple photos of his latest find, a 1970 Checker Marathon Aerobus. He told me only 3,000 were ever made and most ended up rusted out because of east coast usage. But, this one is cherry, and he says he got it from an Asian collector on the West Coast and he wanted to turn it into a Cave Creek bus, complete with logos of the businesses he admired and thought did justice to Cave Creek. He asked for our logo and I sent it to him. To be honest, I thought it might look a little cheesy, having seen train wreck graphics on various cars around town.

But, this morning Sally, at the front desk, came back and said a gentleman was up front who wanted to show me the finished product—The True West bus. Well, it wasn't a gentleman, it was Mark, but when I took a gander at it, I flipped and went back into the office and made everyone come out and take a look.

Here's the True West Babes, Sheri, Shannon, Abby and Meghan, all ready for a True West road trip:

Yes, those are saddles on the roof and the theme on the sides is of a classic roadster pulling a trailer. It's quite a work of art and is a car within a car, if you will. You will be seeing us in this at the next 50 parades. Ha.

Meanwhile, on Saturday I attended memorial services for Mrs. Gertrude Sargent Mell. She was 97 and lived a great life. Ed Mell's son, Carson, told a wonderful story of visiting her and the talk turned to family gossip, which she didn't really like, so, after a couple comments, she said, "You know what they say, everyone is weird but you and me, and I'm not so sure about you."

From there, I attended the end of a writing seminar at Phoenix College featuring Ron Carlson, who read a short story of his in which he mentioned old school Country music as sounding like it was "recorded in someone's kitchen after everyone got through crying." Love that image.

Met Pattarapan and Thomas Charles at Gallo Blanco for lunch at Clarendon and Third Ave. Great Mexican food. Had the homemade guacamole and two pork tacos.

Worked the rest of the weekend on painting in my studio. Did another take on Not So Gentle Tamers, this one (the dress is poached from a painting by James McNeill Whistler) and the alternative title could be Rattlesnake Kate:

Kathy and I had dinner on Saturday night with Rose Mary and Larry Winget. Enjoyed a nice meal on the rooftop at Carefree Station. Larry mentioned he has programmed a CD of the songs he wants to be played at his funeral. He doesn't want to leave it to chance, or someone who would screw it up. Zany. This got me to thinking that even though I intend to be cremated, I thought about the idea of buying a gravestone at the Mountain View Cemetery in Kingman, between my mother and father (they are buried some 100 yards from each other, but were divorced a long time before that). I was noodling some zany ideas about what to write on the headstone commenting on that fact, when I read this quote:

"The cemetery isn't really a place to make a statement."
—Mary Elizabeth Baker