Well, I contacted the Tulsa County Bldg. Dept, Supt, Buck Rudd, today, &
had another nice conversation. Seems my earlier calls to the Tulsa CITY
Public Works Dept, has "made" its way , to the mayor's office, which has
ben in contact with the COUNTY Bldg. Dept. The "COUNTY" told me, that it
was, indeed, the CITY's responsibility to dig-up the car.
Mr. Rudd volunteers that he has a newspaper article, & a 'new' photo of
The Plymmie, all set to be interred. THEN, he says, that "all" he wants
is to drink THE BEER that was left in the trunk (are you 'following' me,
so far?).
Seems that, in addition to the lipstick & parking ticket, et al, the
City saw-fit to load into the trunk a CASE OF SCHLITZ ("Milwaukee's
Finest") beer!!! And, in addition to the 5
gallons of Sunray Mid-Continent high-test gasollene, there was 5 quarts
of Sunray motor oil, put into the trunk. Beer, gas, & oil!!!!(that'll
keep ya warm & lubed).
Let's see; what else? Oh, yeah, "Former band leader and Club owner,
Charles Love", contributed the beer, but realizing that he wouldn't be
around, in 2007, inscribed on the tires: " To my son, I hope you get
this car when they dig it up" (sniff).
Mr. Rudd then volunteered to fax me a copy of the 'new' photo, which
shows the car, up in the air, from a low-aspect, w/the viewer looking up
obliquely, toward the left/front wheel. Rudd also faxed a 'new'
newspaper article (unknown dateline, but probably 1997 -1998, that
references the above 'new-info'.
I then faxed Rudd, asking him to email me (per his 'earlier' offer) a
good image of the subect photo.
When (if) it is received, I'll see if Fearless Leader will post the
article & photo to the FWDLK's website.
Having determined that the COUNTY has "nothing-more" ( a FAMILIAR
refrain, I'm hearing, now) to offer [but : THANKS, Buck Rudd!!] , I next
contacted the Tulsa Historical Society, & , eventually, spoke with their
Curator, "Kathy". who told me , that , in addition to a newspaper
article, 'they' : " had nothing-more" on the car. She did say that "The
City" had 'just' contacted her, "about sombody from CA, calling about
:'That Car' ".
HOWEVER, from the aforementioned newspaper article, provided by Mr.
Rudd, I knew that : " Armed Forces Radio Network recently expressed
interest in the buried car story, and obtained PHOTOGRAPHS [!] from the
Historical Society."
So, I wrote a polite letter to the H.-S., confirming my call, &
requesting the purchase of 8x10" reprints of the pics that they had
provided, to the AFRN.
I was beginning to feel like "Jim Rockford [Files]" , did, trying to
get info, on a private investigation.
Next stop: Mayor's office, where I left a long (unreturned) message for
Admin Secy Karen Keith, mentioning that it appeared that it IS The
City's responsibility to unearth the Plymmie, and also asked her to,
please, research "The Archives", that "nobody" seems to know-about, in
Re: how the vault was constructed, & how the lid might be removed
therefrom. I also mentioned, as per Rudd's advises, that a sub-committee
to the Tulsa "Centennial Committee" should be established, to oversee &
coordinate the procedures involved in closing-off Denver St (4-lane
commercial-road)
erecting grandstands, arranging for crowd-control, and the necessary
sidewalk
removal (there's a sidewalk installed over a portion of the vault),
ground excavation, lifting-crane procurement, and suitable engineers, to
oversee the removal of the lid and the car ( & I forget what 'else' I
mentioned)--but the implication was that SOMEBODY should begin to think
about finding the vault's plans/specs.
Next thing: write to Mr. Mayor, (politely) asking
for info on the vault's plans/specs (assuming that they can be FOUND),
on behalf of Plymmie-lovers, all over the WORLD, who intend to SPEND
OUR MONEY in his fine ciudad, on 6/15/06 (oh, yeah; "nobody" knew the
DATE of the dis-interment, in Tulsa) and, who are "concerned" about the
nature/extent
of the encapsulation of the Plymmie.
It's really FUN to mention, to "whomever" that The City is NOT going to
be able to get-rid-of
the car any-time-soon, after 6/15/07, due to the SLIGHT technicality in
determining, precisely ,
WHAT the POPULATION of T-Town will be, in 2007!!!!! [..wait til the
2010 census, and develop
a trend-line, from previous census', and then extrapolate backwards, to
2007--that's good for a nervous - laugh!!! ]. Hope The City's got a
secure, long-term indoor storage facility
And, howabout "riddle-ing-me-this": as you all know, when 'you' win a
raffle-of-anything-of-value, you get presented with an I.R.S.
ordinary-income-receipt filing form "1099" , referencing and
representing the " Fair Market Value" of the 'thing', so that you have,
then, incurred the TAX LIABILITY of paying 'income-tax' on a
tangible-commodity, AS IF you had received, instead,
that-much-actual-CASH !
So, guess what? The City will have to have an Actual Cash Value
APPRAISAL be performed, on the car, after its dug-up, so that the lucky
winner ['s estate] will get the REMAINS of the car AND a
tax-liability!!!!---so, the likelyhood of the car, residing
chained-to-a-tree, is somewhat
remote---can you say : "QUICK-SALE", in 2010
(after the census-count?).
FINALLY (for today), for all of you who are concerned about there being
"nothing" to win, the above-mentioned newspaper article mentions that
The City WAS worried about preserving the Plymmie, so that : " ...before
it was ceremoniously buried, it was wrapped with paper and plastic, then
lowered into the ground as hundreds watched."--no "cosmolene" was
mentioned--hope the cosmo was in addition to the paper & plastic!!
Goodnite!
Neil
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