By KATH GANNAWAY
SOME dreams are worth the wait.
At 88, George Driver is living his boyhood dream – behind the wheel of a 1926 Dodge Tourer.
“When I was a kid, about 10, my uncle used to come up to Monbulk with one exactly the same as this,” he said as he prepared to head off for a joy-ride from the Sam Knott Hotel in Wesburn last week.
“He’d say ‘come on George hop in.” “I was about this high,” he says, approximating 10-year-old-boy height with his hand.
“I’d hop on his knee and we’d go for a drive around the block, and from that day on I said I wanted one.”
He bought the car just over a year ago from an ‘old bloke’ in New South Wales.
George said he’d had it for 45 years and was selling it reluctantly.
“He was selling because of health problems; he said he couldn’t close the driver’s door anymore.”
It came off the factory floor a year before George was born, and has never been restored.
A bit like George, it’s not in mint condition, but it’s aged well and is still enjoying life on the road.
There has been one welcome modification, however.
George remembers his uncle hand-cranking the motor to get it running, but at some point it has had a starter-motor installed.
“I must have reconditioned a million of those things (starter motors) over the years,” George said, harking back to more than 50 years in Yarra Junction where he ran a tractor franchise.
The family moved to the valley when he was 13, and he went to work for the Signs Publishing Company at Warburton.
He found he could make more money picking peas for Ismail’s, who grew vegetables in Upper Yarra, and later started the tractor business in Riversdale Road.
Moving to Millgrove about four years ago, after losing his wife, Pam, he started to think again about his uncle’s Dodge.
He had to go through a few hoops to get one. Bill (the old bloke) wanted to make sure it was going to a good home.
George said he was happy to send him a photo of his garage and security lighting, but that he drew the line at taking it for a run on a certain day each month and vacuuming it afterwards.
The Dodge, with George at the wheel, is a real head-turner.
They certainly looked in their element parked in front of the historic Sam Knott.
George was sharing the joy by taking publicans Daryl Wharton and Elaine Mackay on a tour of the big block from Wesburn to the Reefton Hotel.
“I’m having a wonderful old play,” he said, giving the old girl a pat on the mudguard.
The engine may run a bit rough … or “as rough as guts” as George says, but it’s everything he ever dreamed of.
If enjoyment of life is any measure, both have plenty of mileage left in them yet.
