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The True Met Story
TRUE MET STORY
From the Pacific Northwest
Early summer of 1992 Barbara and I were on a weekend 'getaway' at Ocean Shores
on the Washington coast. It just happened to be the same time the AMC club
'Whitecaps & Hubcaps' from Hoquiam-Aberdeen were having their annual
club car show. We were really thrilled to see several Metropolitans
participating, however one entry especially 'grabbed' my attention. Jim &
Irma Cave from Whiterock, B.C. drove there modified Met, a station wagon,
pulling behind a Met trailer made from the rear of another Metropolitan.
What a sight !!! Well, this sure triggered a 'flashback' to a
earlier time in our lives. In January of 1959 I had just returned from the
active duty portion of my Army Nat'l Guard obligation and needing to find a 'set
of wheels', I found a cute little Met convertible on a used car lot.
My first car was a 1948 Nash Ambassador, so this little '54 Met became my second
car & 1st convertible. Being 'mechanically inclined' I had a lot of
fun 'fixing & tinkering' with a car that was only about five years
old. Then in August 1960 after meeting in high school and dating, Barb
& I were married. Our honeymoon week was traveling around the scenic Olympic
Nat'l
Park in our Met convertible with the 'top up' because it rained most of the time
!! Well, we soon outgrew the Met & found a 'big' car & many other
Nash Ramblers along the way. Back to around 1993, I happened to attend a
'old
car' swap meet a saw a fellow wearing a 'sandwich board' which indicated his
desire to find old Met parts. He gave me his Met card which I saved, then
several years later in 1998 I found Terry & Lu Davies 'Met card' in my
desk
drawer. I called him & he invited me to his shop to see his Nash & Met
collection. Terry gave me his copy of the local MOCNA chapter Met club, the
Pacific Northwest Metropolitan Owners Club. Then about two months later the club
was showing their Mets at the Ezra Meeker Mansion, a historical landmark here in
Puyallup, WA. Dale Carrington 'signed us up' on the spot. We finally
purchased our present 1959 Met convertible in May 2001 from the widow of
Gene Mitchell, co-founder of our local chapter. Our Met was Gene's 'baby'
according to the club members. We have kept his personal license plate, MET 1.
Even though we never met him, we want to honor him for his enthusiastic love of
Metropolitans and club activities. Yes, we are very happy to keep MET 1
involved at shows and parades and we are privileged to have been club officers
in 2003.
Warmest Regards,
Gary & Barb King
MOCNA #8020
PNWMOC #512
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