HT/ Doc
Lenny has an amazing car collection in a rundown garage in Brooklyn. When you see him in the ice cream truck you’ll understand that the cars are just muses for Lenny to become someone other than just Lenny from Brooklyn. (He has the Ice Cream Truck-man uniform!)
I’m a motorhead. I would love to spend the day with Lenny, just listening to him talk about each of his cars.
I, too, love cars…I don’t know how many I’ve had—over a hundred—but never had sense to keep anything neat. I like his style…not trying to collect what everyone else wants. Wish I could visit.
A true car nerd, I gotta love this guy and his collection of older cars. I love his Packards, my dad was a Packard guy, he owned a few when he was growing up and we had a maroon 53 Packard Clipper as our primary family car well into the early and even mid 60’s before it finally gave up the ghost. There is a vintage green well kept up 1948 Studebaker Champion in Kalispell, Montana which must belong to an old guy that I pass by every Monday on the way to one of my customers. I always liked those, probably because my Uncle Ted had one when I was a kid.
I’m your Ice Cream Man, stop me when I’m passin’ by.
I’m your Ice Cream Man, stop me when I’m passin’ by.
See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy.
I got bim bam banana, dixie cups, all flavors and pushups too.
I’m your ice cream man, stop me when I’m passin’ by.
See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy.
….on another note (‘note’…..get it?….groan) I’m also an old car freak…doesn’t matter the vintage…reminds me of the days of 25 cent a gallon gas & American muscle. No seat belts, vent windows, white-walled tires, chrome everywhere, go as fast as you want, engine’s roaring, climb in the back seat the size of a bed, trunk big enough to hold cattle & flicking your cigarette butts out the window….EPA can go suck my tailpipes
When I first moved to Brooklyn, there was still a lot of Dodgers – era civic pride there. The borough was filled with fascinatingly idiosyncratic guys like Lenny. Our attitude was, “If you live in Manhattan, it must be because you couldn’t make the grade in Brooklyn.”
Now it’s all scenesters and Third-world immigrants. I’m glad I don’t live there anymore.
Cool! Thanks for posting!
I’m a car gal, too. I would never collect them (mainly because I don’t collect anything), but I am a lover of great car design and futuristic engineering. My first car was a 1963 Studebaker Lark wagon but I coveted the GT Hawk. Then it was a ’63 VW bug, followed by a ’76 Jag XJS (yes, original 12 cylinder engine). I’ve never owned a late-model car except what I call my Ford Mommyvan. It’s not a car, it’s “transportation.”
I understand Lenny’s affection for that era and those cars and his “therapy.” So cool.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m5SJMQXvrXk/Viajlrt1u3I/AAAAAAAAUwU/8oUFXcrUjvk/s1600/khakis.jpg
Seriously, Lenny lives like a cave man. If he would a’ got out o’ that concrete jungle he couldda had a nice barn with a view and everything.
A curious individual. Most collections focus on some era or style. I’d call this more A.D.D than eclectic, but I love street rods and muscle cars, mustangs, 3 2bbl, 4 speeds, smoking tires and dual exhaust.
Very nice. I appreciate it, BFH.
I’d like to have a couple of those old Caddies. Always wanted an old Checker cab too; roomy, 350 Chevy engine, talk about easy to work on! And very reliable.
Found the video to be very soothing.
My dad was a car guy. Chip Foose had nothing on the old man. He had to take a real job around the time I was born (fourth kid in 5 years)…had to have insurance. Lenny reminds me of him. I needed that today. Thanks for posting.
Abigail Adams, what kid didn’t covet Studebaker Hawks back in the day. They had fins with attitude. They were some of the coolest cars Studebaker ever built. My brother in Seattle has a 63 Studebaker Lark station wagon with the sliding rear roof panel, cool car. He still drives it on occasion. He also owns a vintage 1939 Studebaker Commander in very good condition which is strictly for show purposes anymore although it is drivable.
The ’63 Stud Wagon! That was my car, too! That sliding rear roof was the bomb! Hey, I live in Seattle — maybe his car was my car(?) It was my first car, I bought it in Olympia when I was 16 from a lot that was more like a junk yard. It cost $100. I had a H.S. teacher/friend who liked to work on cars so he helped me hone the wheels, install breaks (they were shot), put in a new wiper motor, etc. etc. I learned to change my own oil on that car. Besides the cool roof, the Lark was a trend-setter with “overdrive.” Loved that car! (But still wanted the Hawk.) The Commander is a lovely thing, too.
Go see my brother Eric at Eric’s Garage down in the U district at the bottom of the hill down along Lake Washington just North of Hec. Edmundson Pavillion. His garage is somewhere down there, just don’t tell him you know who I am cause he tends to be liberal although he’s getting better after divorcing his feminazi wife or she divorced him , I’m not sure which. His current girl friend is a normal lady from Mercer Island who we all like a lot more than his ex wife. He’s also one hell of a mechanic, a skill he got from our Dad. Out of 4 boys and I am the oldest I didn’t get the mechanical gene. I’m the smart and conservative older brother. I can tell you how stuff works but don’t ask me to fix it. The mechanical gene was passed onto my son who intuitively understands how things work and is a fiber optic cable installing wizard.
Thanks! I will go take a look. I met the original owner of the car I bought. He was a traveling distributor for something or other in the NW territory, which included Montana. There were a few miles on that car! He introduced himself when he recognized it. Fun story.