ON THE LOT WITH LINDNER

 Two interesting updates to a previous story:

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Several days ago, I posted a piece about my nostalgic visit to a Ford dealership where I once worked nearly 50 years ago. The owner was one of two embattled brothers who owned car dealerships along 122nd Avenue in Portland at that time.

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Update I: My friend Dave, a well-known Portland businessman who has his finger on the pulse of Portland history like no one I know, told me the Tonkin brothers were the inspiration for the movie “Used Cars,” with Kurt Russell and Jack Warden. I had no idea!! If you’ve never seen Used Cars, I highly recommend it. It’s hilarious, albeit a bit raunchy, as I recall.

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Update II:

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So yesterday, that essay spawned another “small world” moment. Someone on Facebook, not a FB friend or even a follower, read it with nostalgic amusement. Just someone who happened to see it float past in his feed at his home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—so he contacted me yesterday. (He gave me permission to write this up, contingent on my not mentioning his name. I gave him my word that I wouldn’t).

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He asked me: “You sold cars for Marv Tonkin in ‘72?”

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“That’s right.”

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“And you drove a Corvair?”

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“Yes I did.”

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“Was it a kind of root beer brown color?”

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😳 “Yeah. Who are you?”

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“I was the team leader for one of the other sales teams. I’m the guy who gave you the nickname ‘A-rab.’”*

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“Oh my god! I remember you now! And they called you Lennon, because you wore round John Lennon glasses.”

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“That’s me.”

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I was 20 at that time, and he had to be in his mid-thirties. So he’s around 84-85 years old now. For whatever reason, he says he left Oregon in the late ‘70s, moved around a bit, then finally retired near Lake Superior. But he read my post, saw mention of my Corvair, looked at my profile picture and pieced it all together.

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*The back story to being called ‘Ā-rab.’ First, my apologies to folks of Arab descent. I realize that’s a slur. This was a group of street-hardened, largely uneducated young men who insisted on tagging each other with ethnic monikers. Mine wasn’t as offensive as some of the others. I looked/look sorta’ Middle Eastern (particularly back then), so I became known as A-rab.

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Bruce the Jewish-atheist-Arab who parked his Chevy at the most hardcore Ford dealership in the Northwest every morning, and couldn’t sell enough cars to afford a hamburger at the nearby 2-for-$1 burger joint. 🥴  Yup. I’m that guy.

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But I just LOVE it when Facebook ties these little bows! 🎀  ‘Tis a small, small world indeed. I’m’a gonna watch Used Cars today. 🤩

 

Comments

[Joel]

Hmmm. I wonder who this well-known Portland businessman named Dave could be. Damn! I love a mystery.

[Woody]

I guess the basis was dirty tricks? I don’t think either of them was the victim of a freeway ramp going though their dealership.

Based on TV exposure Ron was by far the leader. “I’m honking for Marc Tonkin” was the worst commercial I’ve seen in my life.

[Woody]

*Marv* Tonkin.

[Chuck Legg]

Hey Bruce, would you like to borrow my Remastered Laserdisc of Used Cars? Much better than the original pressing. Let Me know!