A Cinderella Story: John & Marilyn Elliott's
1972 Ford LTD - Houston, Texas U.S.A.

My love for old cars is only not very old, but one thing I know for sure, no one buys a brand new car off the show room floor with the intention of keeping it thirty years to become a classic. Even if they did, fate and misfortune can relegate the car and the best laid plans to the scrap heap. Only a few cars from a busy production line ever become classics, and behind every well-preserved classic , there is a Cinderella story. A story about a car who comes into the world all shiny and new, but whose glimmer and style fades as time marches on. Soon the shiny new car goes through a phase when it is not as desired as it once was. Years pass. Then one day, Prince Charming sees Cinderella. He sees her beauty, dresses her in new clothes and makes her shine again like a princess. This is a Cinderella story. This is the story of a 1972 Ford LTD. My first real introduction to my Ford came in 1987. My grandmother died that year, and her estate was divided up between my deceased uncle’s four daughters and my mother. Like an orphaned stepchild that no one wanted, my mother asked me if I would take the car. I certainly did not have my eye on a fifteen-year-old car, but when asked if I wanted the car, the price was right (free), so I thought “Why not?” I took it off her hands. I remember the first day she drove it into my driveway. It was not love at first sight. It was a big huge green machine. The car had only 52,000 miles in 1987 and came with the original warranty card, as well as the 1972 owner’s and shop manuals. The “Bright Green Gold” paint, code 4B, was dulled. The interior of the car was, however, immaculate. According to the owner card ‘ my grandfather bought the car on November 4, 197 1. He was a retired oil field worker who kept good care of his belongings. Unfortunately, he died in 1975. My widowed grandmother knew little about engines and cars. I can now look back and remember her occasionally asking me questions about routine maintenance. If anything needed to be done to the car, like changing the oil or replacing the windshield wipers, my grandmother always had an experienced mechanic perform such routine tasks. But grandma seldom drove the car. Once a week she would have to go to the grocery store, or on a really busy week, she may have to drive it to run an errand or visit a friend. I do not recall ever seeing food, drink, pets or children in the car. As grandmother grew older, her daughter (my mother) began to buy groceries for her, reducing even further the vehicle’s use. The car was always garaged. Grandma parked the car in her covered garage and that’s where it stayed most of the time. When it was given to me, I was driving a company vehicle to get to and from work. It made more economic sense to put the company vehicle outside in the weather and use my garage to store my personal belongings, including grandma’s 1972 Ford LTD. I really had no use for the car. I was single again, working and going to school at night. Except for occasionally starting it to move it out of my way when I wanted to get something from the garage, the car just stayed parked in my garage for years. My son came to live with me briefly for about three months in 1993, and he grudgingly drove it to and from work. He began calling the green machine “The Slime,” and that disparaging nickname has humorously stuck. In 1994 I married again. I moved all my belongings into my wife’s house and garage. We had at least two of everything -- two washers, dryers, refrigerators, TVs, stereos ... and, of course, three cars. My wife, Marilyn, said she almost did not marry me because of the Ford. It was so big and in her opinion, ugly. She did not park her own car in her garage, so in went the Ford. With everything else we were storing in the garage, the car barely fit. After finishing school I could devote more time to myself. On the weekends I started tinkering with the Ford. I found that working on the car was fun and helped relieve stress from a busy work week. The carburetor gaskets, muffler, plugs, spark plug harness, tires, battery, cable, water pump, heater coil and air-conditioning compressor were replaced. The car ran great, and of course the interior was still immaculate, needing no restoration. I began to enjoy driving the car around on the weekends. Marilyn, on the other hand, never wanted to be seen riding in it, Once, she caught herself waving to someone she knew, forgetting she was in “The Slime.” How embarrassing! After the car became mechanically sound, I knew it was time for a new paint job. Marilyn wanted me to paint it a different color, but I had heard that keeping an old car its original color made the car more valuable. Like Cinderella, dressed in beautiful clothes for the ball, the new Bright Green Gold paint turned “The Slime” into a princess. I soon began to see people in parking lots and at intersections turn their heads to look at my car. My wife began to see how much fun it was riding around in the LTD. I even caught her praising the Ford to her friends. Marilyn and I have entered the car in shows. Although it is not old enough to command much attention like those beautiful cars made in the fifties and sixties, usually a dozen or so people stop to look. The car seems more popular with teenagers and men more than 40 years old. For a while I had a “For Sale” sign on the window, thinking I might sell it to buy a sixties convertible. I grew fearful, however, that someone might actually purchase it. I am not sure why, but I felt like it would be a mistake to part with it -- maybe it is because I know it was my grandmother’s car; or maybe because I know how much care and work have gone into the car; or maybe because I know that for the money I will never find a car that old with absolutely no rust and flawless interior. When I told my wife that I was unsure whether we should sell it, she confessed that she thought we should keep it. So no longer is the car like an unwanted orphaned stepchild as it once was in 1987. Grandma’s 1972 Ford LTD survived perfectly intact those treacherous years that every classic car must go through before it meets Prince Charming. Now, in 2000, my Ford LTD is the biggest, shiniest, smoothest, most luxurious ride we own -- our Cinderella that we expect will provide us fun reliable transportation for many more years to come. (Wasn’t that a GREAT profile? I don’t know about you, but I really like the stories that show the joy that these old cars can bring to folks. These cars carried 16 years of American families and they deserve their rightful position in the American automobile hall of fame...Mark)