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Faye Graves
Faye Graves, a native Wichitan, attended school at Friends and Wichita State, concluding at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has been active in media for many years with Channel 12, KIRL, KFDI, KOOO AM & FM (Omaha), KFRM & KICT 95, as an owner, manager, producer, director and announcer. He has served as President of the Haysville Board of Education. He has also served on several national boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faye currently serves as Executive Pastor and Director of Administration and Education at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 S. Topeka, Wichita. You may contact Faye by e-mail fmgraves@amenibc.org, or by phone at (316) 262-1452.
Nostalgia
2006-08-01 12:01:00
Remembering...
ANSWER:Summer makes me think of cruising days in Wichita.  When I was in high school at North High…very few of my fellow classmates had a new car.  In 1949, my dad bought me a ’41 Ford coupe.  This was a well used ’41.  It had been repainted probably with a brush because the paint was very rough…and one day on close examination my buddy and I found a number decal at the edge of the hood which indicated that it had either been a company car…a taxi…or a police car.  Nevertheless I was happy to have some decent transportation to school.  During the month of August in the heat of the summer…I worked for my dad who was a paint contractor.  I was painting the side of a house with another man…Estelle Gorsage…who later was in the car business in Wichita.  He said, “Why don’t you slick that car up?”  I said, “Like what?”  Well, he helped me with what I needed to do to make that old car look good.  First, we took it to a paint shop on North Main and had it painted bronze metallic.  Then, Estelle introduced me to a guy who was in the body and fender business and we removed some chrome and inset the rear license plate.  We then went on South Broadway just past the John Mack Bridge to a man who sold hub caps and all kinds of chrome accessories.  I bought some Hollywood hubcaps…for the front tires…and some fender skirts for the rear tires.  We then went to another of Estelle’s friends and I could not afford to have the car lowered in the rear by adjusting the springs so we just heated the rear spring with a welding torch and lowered the rear of the car so it was just a few inches from the pavement.  We then took the muffler away and replaced the rear exhaust with twin pipes just using steel wool and cans for a muffler.  We found a piece of brass pipe and took it to a friend of mine who was in auto mechanics class at North and had him cut it in two and put some clamps on the end to hold both extensions on and I had my tail pipes gleaming gold in the sunlight.  Then the car of course had to have some upholstery work…a leopard skin steering wheel cover and a spinner on the wheel.  That enabled you to turn the car with just one hand.  The finale was to place…a Packard bird…with wings that would light up at the end of your hood.  Wow a dream car.  One problem…I would drag Douglas and the other guys would want to race…the engine was junk I could not beat anyone…but I had the slickest looking car on the street.  No air conditioning in these times, but in order to be cool both front and back windows had to be rolled down.  That was August for me in ’49…what great times.  Have a wonderful summer.    
 
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