By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Beverly Miner babies her Bermuda green 1954 Chevy Bel Air. She knows the sedan responds best to four pumps of the gas pedal before she turns the key to start the engine purring.
“Sometimes it takes a little bit of encouragement,” she says.
She pulls out of her Bowling Green driveway to take a spin around town. The substantial steering wheel dwarfs Miner in the driver’s seat. But with her hands firmly at “2 and 10,” she cruises down her street.
The 69-year-old Chevy has no power steering. “The power is right here – in my shoulders,” Miner says with a grin.
The engine compartment is spacious and the dashboard has little to distract the driver’s eyes from the road. And the ample trunk…“You could hide a couple bodies in there,” she said.
With the floor vents open and the windows rolled down, Miner motors around Bowling Green in her beloved Bel Air.
“It is a beautiful thing,” she said of her car.
Miner didn’t also feel such fondness for the Chevy she and her husband, Bob, bought more than 55 years ago when stationed at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.
“When we got it, I was embarrassed to drive it,” since it was already so old, she said. “We paid a whole $350 for it.” Being very safety conscious, Bob installed seatbelts in the Bel Air, long before they were standard equipment in cars.
Over the years, the Bel Air has become a family member, outliving Bob, who passed away in mid 2022.
When Bob proposed to Beverly, he promised to share a life of adventure. “He said, ‘Marry me and I’ll show you the world,’” Beverly said. “I didn’t expect to see the world in a Bel Air.”
When the family moved to a base in the Philippines in 1970, the car came with them – though it took the long route.
“I have not been through the Panama Canal, but it has,” Miner said.
When Bob was later stationed in California, north of San Francisco, the car went with them. Later, the Miners and their two children traveled cross country in their Bel Air – windows down and hair blowing in the wind – back to Bob’s hometown of Tontogany. There, the car was stored in his grandfather’s barn while the family traveled to England for Bob’s next assignment.
When the family moved back to the states, they settled in Bowling Green and reunited with the Bel Air. The car faithfully transported Bob back and forth to Gateway Middle School in Maumee, where he finished his career teaching industrial arts.
The car kept running, so the family kept driving it.
“We don’t keep cars for a short period of time in this family,” Miner said.
The Bel Air carried the family for Bob’s funeral.
But with Bob gone, Beverly believes it’s time to sell the car that has been a part of the family for 55 years. Her husband was the family tinkerer, who loved keeping the old car ready for the road.
“He loved cars,” Miner said, recalling Bob’s wealth of knowledge about old cars – a skill that allowed him to catch soundtrack track errors in old movies. “He’d say, ‘that’s not the engine for that car.’”
Bob retained all the records of any work done on the Chevy – which was very characteristic of him.
“I just shredded checks from 1963,” Miner said with a smile.
The antique car club that the Miners belonged to has been helpful as Beverly tackled her new role as car repair person.
The Bel Air, with just 137,506 miles on it, can still keep up with most traffic.
“My son and I had it out recently and it was up to 75 mph,” she said. “I’m sure there was more in it, but we didn’t need to blow an engine.”
Miner wants the car to go to a new owner who can continue driving it. In the time she was standing outside talking about her Chevy, two prospective buyers stopped by to check out the car – a young man in a pickup and a UPS delivery person.
“I would just love to see it stay local. Maybe I could get visitation rights,” Miner said with a smile.
If the car sells, Miner is planning on using some of the sales money to finally take her own trip through the Panama Canal. She also plans to continue her membership in the antique car club, since she has a 1998 pickup in her garage.
“It’s like getting rid of a member of the family. But I think he’d approve of me selling it,” Beverly said of her husband.
