memory jogging exercise

["Luke M. Kowalski" <interfaces@domain.elided>]

I am probably very late with this "Why an Alfa
submission", but the post below jogged my memory a
bit.

>From: Mike Valant <mev4474@domain.elided>
>Subject: Re:

I was a fresh transplant, straight from Poland, a
country barely settled after Martial Law was
introduced and we saw tanks in the street, a first
ever for me, having grown up in Europe in the 60s,
70s, and half of the 80s. The land of John Wayne,
cacti and the humid Texas frontier were all unfolding
in front of me, very quickly. And I did not understand
much. My high school back on the continent gave me a
choice of 3 languages, in addition to the standard
Polish and Russian. Everyone took English. I went for
French. Which was useful when transferring planes in
Montreal, but not much afterwards, particularly after
we decided to stay in the US. 
I bought a Scirocco first to get me back and forth, as
walking in Texas is not an option, unless you like to
dodge beer bottles thrown from pickups for exercise.
It was followed by an RX-7, an 85. I liked the styling
and the Wankel technology (there used to be an NSU
parked in my hood in Wroclaw). 
I took it for service to Valco, a shop with two nice
fellows in Plano, I think. One worked on rotaries, the
other on Alfas. I liked the iron on the other side of
the shop better... 

I saw my first ever Alfa on a trip to Belgium. Our
host had a black 76 Alfetta, then brand new. I was not
happy about having to sit in the back (law for kids
under 18 at the time). But I liked looking straight at
the gauges !

I never got satiated, that time in Europe, or when
visiting Gary Valant and salivating over his cars. To
make it worse, the RX-7 never broke down, letting me
down for an excuse to visit. 
After Gary took me for a ride in his red GTV, gave me
the history of the marque, I could resit no longer. I
had to have something that was this different and made
similar noises. I found an 81 GTV6, silver one, most
of them seem to be, I have one that used to be silver.
Within 300 miles, it blew its chunks. After Gary
inspected it, it turned out that the dealer who sold
it to me performed a highly unorthodox and temporary
patch repair on the donut. Facing issues of blatant
dishonesty, Gary oferred to help with photo
documentation to convince the dealer to help with the
repair. I needed the help, I could barely communicate
in Texas drawl. It succeeded. Having a photo studio
next door helped. Gary's other hobby was planes, or in
particular, nose art, on WWW2 bombers and such. He
published a book or two and indulged in photography,
just like yours truly (Except that I had the enlarger
in the bathroom and my sister still mentions "the
trauma").I had fun with that car. Until "Stacey"
decided to pull out of the local Fort Worth 7-Eleven
under the influence of the Slurpee (Brain Freeze).

More Alfas followed. It was **all over** at this
point. This purchase of the GTV6 was followed by a 74
spider (still have it), a 74 GTV (bought to restore,
sold half-finished), an 84 GTV6 (Felix Chiu's car), a
69 GTV (sold to pay for one shiny, sparkly object now
worn by wife), an 82 GTV6 (from Tony at Auto
Scientific in Belmont, CA-still got it), and a 95
164LS . I have kept three to this day and will never
sell the Spider.

So it was all Gary Valant's fault, and I am glad. I
had a blast. Mike, "the poster who jogged my memory"
unless I am severely confused, is his son, and seesm
to have inherited the passion and the knowledge.
Everybody has that one person they can point to and
say that they gave them "the bug". For me, it was an
Alfa racer, mechanic, and a very erudite man called
Gary. I loved chatting with him about science,
performance mods, Alfas, anything... While he is no
longer with us, his legacy lives on.
I sincerely hope his son does not mind the tribute and
the mention. 

thx, 
the immigrant with the wide Alfa grin
lukeK, San Mateo, CA
74 Spider, 82 GTV6, 95 164 LS, 98 Audi A6 Q (hers)
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