Marvin's "55"

Marvin Matlack

This is a photo of Marvin Matlack and his 1955 Oldsmobile “Fabulous 55” as it says, taken most likely around 1958. Marvin grew up on Main Street, going from the old Firehouse at 200 Main; his was the fifth house toward the Mill. Marv was always a good mechanic and knowledgeable, there were some of us that knew just enough to get in trouble, then we would turn to the guys that really knew, Marv, Rich Sellers, or Charlie Donnell

When we were growing up in Groveville, it was like our cars were “everything”. We were always “Tinkering* with our cars, mainly trying to get just a little more speed out of them, not a lot, just enough to be faster in the quarter mile than the other guy. We were not concerned about gas mileage, gas costs 31 cents a gallon, and you could go all weekend on $2.00.

I hear the elaborate sound systems the kids have in their cars today and think how our version of an elaborate sound system was a speaker in the backseat, with a three-way switch from Pep Boys (Front, Rear, or Both) connected to our AM radio.

If someone was doing some serious motor work, that’s where we gathered, to help or just watch and learn. We had some nice cars, Marvin’s 1955 Oldsmobile, Al “Buddy” Weiss’s 1960 Pontiac Bonneville, Gary Lippincott’s 1957 2 door, Chevy Bel Air , Tom Dwier’s 1955 Chevy, Tom Snyder’s 1955 Chevy and Ron Taylor’s "Big" Oldsmobile, now that was a “Boat”.

I think if you melted Ron’s Olds down you could make a dozen of today’s cars, just from the metal, there was not much plastic in cars then.

Back then if you had air, fuel, spark and compression, you were good to go, if you didn’t you could fix it yourself, today you need an Associate’s Degree in Automotive Maintenance Technology, and that’s just to add to the windshield washer bottle.