The 1953 Chevy

THE CHEVY
Tom Halm (SHS Class of 57) tells this story

Late last summer I was perusing the Internet for cars. I came across an ad for a 1953 Chevrolet model 210 four-door sedan. For some reason it sounded interesting. It became more interesting when I found out it was located in East Greenbush, NY, which, by the way, is near Albany.

Well, after exchanging several e-mails with the owner, my wife, Peg (Peg Fawell, SHS Class of 58), and I decided to go take a look. I liked what I saw and we struck a deal. My son, Brian, and I rented a U-Haul car trailer and hooked it up to my pickup truck for the trip to East Greenbush to retrieve the car.

I should say at this point that I had already had an addition built on the back of our existing garage. I insulated and wired and finished it off myself. I also added a natural gas heater. So I had a good place to bring the car to. I spent the winter cleaning the undercarriage and the engine compartment. I then took everything except the engine out of the engine compartment and proceeded to clean and repair and repaint everything under there.

I had to rebuild the heater motor, which meant taking the heater system completely out of the car. My son gave me much help along the way. When we took the heater controls out we put a tag on each cable, so we wouldn't have any trouble when the time came to put everything back in.

During the time it was out of the car the stickum on the control wire tags dried up and, unknown to me, they fell off. Man, what a time we had figuring out where those control cables went! We did get everything back in the right location, though.

I spent the rest of the winter replacing most of the old rubber components and gaskets with new ones. There is no trouble in getting most of the items I needed. There are several car part businesses that advertise on the Internet.

By the time summer came, I had fixed and replaced many parts and pieces so that it is now a safe and reliable car to drive around. We have had a lot of fun doing just that this summer.

I have a New York State license plate from 1953 that I can use on the car. The State of New York will let me do this because the old plate is in very good condition. We found it at a car meet in Owego this past summer.

It won't be long now and I will be putting the old girl up for the winter. I plan on doing work on the interior through the winter months. Some day we may even win a trophy or two with our pride and joy. It's a great hobby. We have met some really great people along the way.

Incidentally, our dog, Daisy Mae, enjoys riding in the back seat whenever we hit the road. She sits back there looking like the queen that she is.

Editor's Note: As a postscript to this story we should mention that the Halm children have all followed in their parents' footsteps as graduates of SHS. Son, Brian, who is helping Tom with the Chevy restoration, graduated with honors from Southside in 1982. He then attended CCC and graduated from there in '86 when he attended Oswego State and received his teaching certificate. He was working as a tech writer at Elm Chevrolet in Elmira after graduation from Oswego when he was approached by CCC and was offered a position teaching for them in their automotive program which is where he is today. He and his wife Vivian have three children: Shelby, age 7; Jake, age 4 and Brooke, age 19 months.

Daughter, Vicki, graduated from SHS in 1984 and is serving in the Air Force as a medical services technician stationed at Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, NE. She has a 5-year old son Caleb.

Daughter, Jennifer, graduated from SHS in 1986, CCC in 1988 and Mansfield University in 1991 and is teaching 3rd grade at Booth Elementary School. She and her husband,. Pat Donnelly, live in Elmira and have two children - Colin, age 4, and Claire, age 9 months. Pat is the Head Basketball Coach at Elmira College.

And let's not forget Daisy Mae who is 8 years old!