1939 OLDSMOBILE

I learned a lot about fixing cars when I lived in Southie. My friend from my old neighborhood, Bob Bumstead, (he lived on West 6th St and I lived on West 5th ) owned a 1939 Oldsmobile. We used his car to commute to MIT from Southie every day for 4 years. Although mostly reliable there were times when the car broke down. On Saturday we would trek down to Quincy to Goldie’s where cars were heaped one on top of others. We had to bring our own tools and disassemble the needed part, pay the fee for the used part then back to Southie to make the repairs. Cars were simpler then and DYI selfers could actually manage to make the repairs.

After graduation we lost touch with one another. He ended up at Cape Canaveral in Florida and worked on the Space Program and I ended up in Colorado with the Bureau of Reclamation. A couple of years ago I thought of Bob and looked him up in the Alumni Directory. We went to lunch and spent a good part of the afternoon reminiscing about our daily commute and the fun we had figuring how to keep his old rust bucket going for 4 years.

I thought it would be good to have lunch again but when I checked our Monthly Alumni Magazine I discovered he had passed. I am so glad I had a chance to see him one more time. If you have a friend you haven’t seen for a while now would be good time to touch base again.