One of the weirdest occasions of my life thus far.
A young guy smoking a Lexington cigarette after his win at a Grand Prix racetrack during the 60s in South Africa. Who knows, I might have sold him an ice cream at the track so many years ago?
One of my first jobs as a child was to walk around with a big white cooler box, selling ice creams at a racetrack called Kyalami. This was when the international Grand Prix was still being held in South Africa. The pit crews were also some of my customers.
But this post is about that guy smoking the Lexington and you are not going to believe what happened.
Come and look.
See the resemblance? Here is that guy now at 85 years of age!
A great chance meeting took place simply because I was at the right place at the right time.
I saw this 1938 Packard, 6 cylinder, parked in the road outside a shop and decided to investigate with my camera.
This is one of those rare beauties that one only sees maybe once in a lifetime. So I decided to wait for the owner to arrive so that I could get the car on camera in the road.
After about 30 minutes the owner arrived and guess who was driving the car?
As he approached, I waved him to the side of the road for a quick chat.
Then he was on his way and you won't expect the next part of this post here below.
One has to grab these once off opportunities and the guy told me that he also had a Packard 1938, 8 cylinder, coupe at his workshop.
So let's visit his workshop below.
Oh yes, he told me where his workshop was and then he left.
And there it was. A packard, 8 cylinder 1938.
Beautiful isn't it?
Check out the red leather seats.
My breath was taken away at the sight of this beaut!
He started that 8 cylinder up and it hummed a most powerful melody to my soul.
He even had a spare 8 cylinder Packard motor and look at the size of that thing.
He was also returning that Jeep wagon at the back to its former glory.
Reminiscing about his adventures of the past with maid Marian here.
And then that was that, another unexpected adventure that took me right back to the 60s. That's why I always say that one can never know what's going to happen on an outing, and as long as one stays expectant and open minded, anything can happen. I was maybe 13, or 14 years old when I sold the ice creams at the racetrack and who would think that something like this could happen to remind me of those freedom days. Freedom as I could get my own money from the sales to help my mom, as we didn't have a father.
So maybe she arranged this in spirit to show me her gratitude.
Such is life.
I hope that you enjoyed the adventure and the story.
And That's All Friends.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS Bridge camera.
