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Show 5 Bonnie Glidden'i Mustang, shown above in 1970, two years later began a ar odyssey that found it transformed and back on the road (left) when car and former owner were reunited four years ago to drive the same streets of Clear Lake, Iowa, once again (far left). Mom died, I was saddled with a lot of responsibility. I think Dad was trying to make up for that. Now, Gliddens gift from her father sits in the same garage it did back in the early 1970s. Her father, a local building contractor, built the house when she was just 4, and shes lived there most of her life. Today, she and her husband. Bob, call the house home. On a low shelf in the kitchen still sits a basketshaped crystal bowl filled neatly with papers. It was there that, years ago, Glidden tucked the key to finding the lost Mustang a small, yellowing guaranteed warranty card that bore the cars vehicle identification number (VIN), 6T08C198814. a rwiia tfme I u'ece vaer iajt out did papers I just kept Every Glidden. As the years Card that back, says putting the in her interest memento grew. passed, I realized that Id made a mistake selling that car. Id look at that card and think, Oh, I wonder if that car is still around. I wonder if it has been restored. Td Weeded think, Well, maybe someday. Shed go through that bowl every year and threaten to see if she could find the car, Bob says. In July 1997, she decided to act. In a short letter to Iowas Office of Vehicle Services, she noted the Mustangs VIN and asked for information about the car's fete. Within days, she had a response, a letter listing the cars last known Iowa registration in August 1979- - It took just seven phone calls and 12 days including a paper trail that led coincidentally to one owner in Glidden, Iowa to trace the car to Pavel Auto Sales in ONeill, Neb., 250 miles away. Nostalgic searches for lost Mustangs arent uncommon, says Bill Johnson, president of the national Mustang Club of America. Though relatively few actually out engine and transmission), and then gaining GT status with its new performance engine and posh pony interior. But for all thats changed, Glidden sees the familiar: 40 percent of the 1966 production years 607,658 Musbe restorable road the console, a boxy radio that at least looks just like the still on in the or condition, may tangs one that used to play the Beach Boys, a VIN thats just Johnson estimates. Glidden s good fortune at finding hers was temone digit off (to reflect the new engine). She drives a piece of her past, a fun ride that helps her hold close her father's pered with the fact that it wasnt quite what shed had in mind. My heart sank when I first heard generosity, love, and playful spirit. She knows now that her father took as much joy about the color," she says. She also learned that shop owner Izzy Pavel wasnt ready to sell. He said hed being in the saddle as she. He borrowed the Musplan to sell it at some time in the future, and that tang one day and didnt come back on time. I was mad and went to meet him in the Rambler, and I hed keep me in mind, she explains. After an eight-monfound him. He was in town with the top down, just wait, Glidden got the call she wanted Pavel said hed part with the car. The price smiling. He was proud of that car. Even bittersweet memories make Glidden smile. was fair, but a bit more than my dad paid, says Glidden in knowing understatement. A 1966 convertible I remember driving with Dad in the Mustang to in good shape generally sells for $12,000 to $14,000, hear a former governor of Iowa speak one evening. Johnson says and its worth more if equipped like That was just before he died. We were just starting Gliddens. relate to each other as adults. ftjang with Dad on prom night, I9M. to Bob drove it back from NebrasWilliam R. Walker Gliddens kind-fece- d ka, says Glidden, who was too father, pipe perched on his excited to make the drive herself. I in as a favorite photo surely bps was on cloud nine. I dont know how would grin today to see his daughter back in the classic car. Hed see her many pictures I took from our hotel-roobalcony on the trip back. smiling in the Mustang that bears the Back in Clear Lake, Glidden vanity plate REUN1TD, driving down still sometimes fights the cars Main, in a local parade, or just comshift from to tendency stubbornly muting to work on a sunny day. first to second gear. And shes had Id never sell this car now," she to get used to driving a car that in says. Then she reconsiders: Maybe if bulk and power seems big by She reconsiders we were starving. r standards. No. Then compact-caId todays probably just again: Her charge for rides. sportster had a life of its own in the years away from Clear Lake, barely dodging the trash Yvonne Parsons is a freelance writer in withit one Tenn. sat (at rusted, Nashville, heap point follow through and buy back old cars, the odds that an owner will find his former steed aren't bad. As many as th m black-and-whi- te American Profile Page 7 |