"My Son in Law Jered stumbled on a small Mopar stash...he finally knocked on enough doors and snooped in enough back yards", Dale began a phone conversation with me a week later. "Anyway, the Widow wants all the junk gone, and her prices are really cheap, but as usual Jered has nothing saved up!"
"He is married to your daughter, and Daddy always had deep pockets", I laughed. "What are we talking about?" My curiosity was peaked, and I knew if it was stuff Dale was interested in he wouldn't be calling me.
"Well Jered just wants the Warlock, 360 auto, nearly complete, ran when parked...but she also has a 62 Dodge Lancer GT, two door hardtop..."
"I'll take it!"
"I haven't even sent you pictures! Body is nice, no motor or trans..."
"I'll take it!" I repeated, I had missed on one in 1998, and the others I've seen since were too much money and too fixed up for what I wanted.
"Okay, Okay", he laughed, "I didn't tell you the price, though..."
"You said Jered was interested, and I've never seen him look at anything that wasn't free or twenty-five cents on the dollar!"

A couple days later he called me again, "We went over to load those two cars, and I ended up helping the old lady clean up the yard and her barn...I was there all day!"
"You dirty dog!"
He started laughing immediately. "Look...I think it was very therapeutic for her, she got to talk about her late husband and all his dreams with his Mopars, and how he never seemed to finish one project before starting another, and I removed many of the items that would only remind her of his failures...it was a win/win really!"
"How do you sleep at night?"
"It was rough last night, I'll admit", he laughed again, "I had the truck and trailer absolutely loaded down and I was so sore from loading all those 8 3/4s and four speed stuff that I could barely get up this morning!"
"Son of a..."
"Careful there, those are your parents too!" He laughed.

I changed the subject on him, hoping to catch him with his guard down. "I got a cryptic private message from Matt Blasco(Efidart/Moparts) yesterday, asking if I thought someone might be interested in buying his Drag Week twin turbo Predator motor complete with everything including the management system. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"
"Well...um...he knew that would get back to me...dang it!"
Nailed him, he was squirming like a worm on a hook.
"Look", he stammered, "You can't write about any of this, Matt has me sworn to secrecy!"
"What's he up to!"
"A Goodwin Hemi, bigger turbos...you gotta keep this quiet!"
"Good grief, so you guys have been talking about this for a while!"
"Yeah...at first I just priced the engine, but I don't know anything about turbos or EFI, and Matt is a smart guy, so it makes more sense just to do it all, but I've been dragging my feet!"
"I know you're still working with the boys about buying Michael's nitrous B-1 572 and the Duster, so why would you need a twin turbo Predator deal?"
"I want the Predator deal for the AMX!"
"You've lost your mind! If you buy the Duster, and the Predator that's, that's..."
"Half my yearly income...I know it's stupid, but I'll sell the Goodwin Mega block 572-13 engine to recoup some of it..."
"I'll take it!" I said it just as firmly as I did about the Lancer.
"You've got the Barn Yard, the Valiant, the Belvedere, and the Barracuda...You've got that 512, and the 517 that haven't been ran in ten years! You just bought another Indy top end, a Lancer, and if you buy the 572 you've just spent..."
"Half my yearly income...we've lost our minds!"