My wife says wait and you will find a nicer
one...
After searching for a Graham-Paige car for two
years, I finally decided to purchase a 1929 Graham-Paige 619 sight unseen in
2001 from several states away. It was a
good solid car; the previous owner had put a lot of money into the engine
rebuild so he was extremely unhappy to part with the car for what I had
offered. The 619 Graham-Paige was great
car but it had been restored one too many times. What that means in my book is, parts had been lost during the
several restorations so I was now on the hunt to find some nearly impossible to
find parts. The problem with the 1929
Graham-Paige 619 is it was an extremely short run car only 200 made. It was a 1928 body on a 1929 chassis, with
some unique trim parts to make it look new for 1929. Most of these unique parts were lost in one or more of the
restorations. I was getting frustrated
with the car because it was not going to be as nice as I wanted it to be. The hunt for the elusive parts
continued.
I was off to my local spring swap meet to hunt
for Graham parts. I talked with a few
of my old car friends and to my surprise one of them knew of a 1929
Graham-Paige not more than 30 miles away, my luck might be turning. I was hoping to just look at the car and
take some pictures so I could figure out what I was missing. The big problem was I had no idea what model
this car was, most of the Graham’s in 1929 were the “small” six cylinder cars. I had a “big six” so all the parts are
different! I was able to find the
gentleman’s phone number. His name was
Donald Hauling and he said the Graham was stored at his cottage near Red Wing,
MN just up the river from me.
I talked with Donald several times and he agreed
to let me look at his Graham. It was
spring of 2002 when we were able to get together. Donald was your normal great car guy, a few cars in the shed,
some unique toys including a collection of antique lawn mowers he still
used. He even had and an old Aries K
car he had turned into a wood splitter!
It was a cold spring day so my 3-year-old son and my lovely wife headed
for the warm house with Donald’s wife Louise.
There was a row of cars in the shed, the first
was a 1965 Chrysler, second was a 1955 Pontiac Chieftain, third was the 1929
Graham-Paige, fourth was a 1970 454 Chevelle, fifth was a 1953 Studebaker,
parked in front of that was a 1956 Chevrolet BelAir. Lots of beautiful cars but the Graham-Page stopped me in my
tracks. It was the second largest
Graham built in 1929 an 827 five-passenger sedan. What a beautiful unrestored car the paint and interior was
factory original with only 58,000 original miles.
After getting past my shock and disbelief that a
Graham like this could be in my back yard, I took lots of measurements and
pictures. Donald asked me if I would be
interested in purchasing the Graham. I
explained how I had just bought the 619 and my “fun money” supply was
completely drained. He said it is
yours…. not sure I understand? I am
looking for good homes for my cars, and if you are interested it can be
yours. I thought for a moment and said
we have not even talked about how much…”we will work that out.” Well yes I would love to take care of the
Graham for a few years!
His plan was to have a list of buyers his wife
could call if something happened to him so she would not have to worry about
the cars. We discussed prices and
timetables, and came to an arrangement, I would save money and he or his wife
would call when it was time to pick up the Graham.
Donald told me the story of when he was a Carpenter
at Mayo Clinic one of the Doctors had told him of this old car he still had
from when he went to school at Mayo in the 1950s. He was a young doctor from Massachusetts and drove the
Graham-Paige between Minnesota and Massachusetts during school. He had never been able to bring himself to
sell the Graham-Paige. Donald called
him and asked him every year for over 10 years if he would sell the
Graham-Paige one year he said yes.
Donald and his friend drove to remote location in Wisconsin to get the
Graham-Paige from the Doctors cabin.
The Doctor said it was in the shed in the back yard, can’t be that shed
it is too small, yes it is in there.
When Donald opened the shed doors there was no Graham just a pile of
firewood. “She is under the wood”…sure
enough after digging in the wood they found a headlight; the entire front of
the Graham had been buried. After a
long dig and airing up the tires, they pulled out the Graham out into the
sunshine, they had no idea how long it had been buried but after the Grahams
long rest it was finally heading back on the road. After loading the Graham on the trailer they noticed the rear
tires were not quite on the trailer.
The car was so big and long it was hanging off, it was lifting the rear
of the truck! The result was they could
not exceed 35 mph before the entire rig started swaying back and forth, the
4-hour drive home that now would be over 6 hours!
Almost two years had passed since Donald and I
had made the deal on the Graham-Paige.
I had called Donald from time to time to make sure everything was still
good with the Graham; till one day I got a call… Donald, yes I still very much want the Graham, “can you pick it
up this weekend? My head racing do I
have enough money…yes, I can I think.
“We will talk more when you get to the cabin” see you then. What I did not know is someone had broken
into Donald’s cabin and trashed the place, and they had stolen the 1970
Chevelle and wrecked it. His wife Louise was
so upset she refused to return to the cabin.
He had sold the cabin to a neighbor and they were moving what was not
broken out that weekend, including the remaining cars.
Donald and Louise meet us to pick up the Graham,
despite the unpleasant events we had a good time loading the Graham on the U-Haul
trailer. We talked and reminisced over
the events of the last two years including our new daughter, Louise was holding
while Ben was playing on the old lawn mowers.
We took pictures of Donald and Louise with the Graham; it was a somber
moment for them to see the Graham go to new caretakers. The back tires of the Graham were hanging
off the rear of the trailer just like last time. I was a little worried I would have to drive home at 35mph again,
but my truck was much bigger, I had just finished building the truck (that is
another story) this was the madden journey.
We headed out on the way home; I gently
accelerated to about 55 mph enough speed to get home safely. We stopped at Red Wing to get some ice
cream and access our new Graham-Paige.
I was not ready for the onslaught of well-wishers all asking about the
Graham. I could see all ready this
would be another lifelong relationship; she is one of the family now.
I sent Christmas cards to Donald every year
after we acquired the Graham-Paige. The
kids got used to me bringing out the 827 in the fall with the Santa hats for
our annual picture. Louise passed away
in 2007, Donald passed away, August 2011.
His son Bryan told me when he went to see Donald the latest Graham
Charismas card was always posted on his refrigerator.
The 827 Graham-Paige is still running and
driving strong, each one of my kids have their favorite Graham Cars from our
collection, but it will be exceptionally hard for me to ever part with the 827,
I can still see Donald leaning against the fender laughing about the 35 mph
trip home.
