Story originally printed in the Westby Times or online at www.westbytimes.com
Published - Wednesday, February 20, 2008
What's the Point?
Otis Anderson, of Coon Valley, was 89 years old when he passed away last week at his home. I didn’t know him as well, but I knew he was a good man, who had a love for yesteryear, which was reflected in his interest of old automobiles and his longtime love of restoring them.
Anderson had the thrill of his life a few years back when Keith and Eileen Carpenter of Parker, Colorado paid a visit to the village of Coon Valley and took Otis for the ride of a lifetime in their 1974 Fascination classic automobile.
The Carpenters, who own three of the five Fascination automobiles ever built, decided to surprise Anderson after reading a letter he wrote to an automotive magazine inquiring about the Fascination automobile.
The Fascination was the brainchild of Paul M. Lewis, a Colorado man who, in the 1930s, designed a three-wheeled Airomobile. The Airomobile was not successful, but he kept his idea alive. In the late 1960s he built the Fascination and started the Highway Aircraft Corporation. Only five vehicles were built before the company collapsed.
Anderson’s curiosity surrounding the classic car wasn’t recent, but decades old after it was discovered that Anderson’s letter had been lost in the mail for years and when it finally arrived at the publishing company the magazine still put it in print. As fate would have it, the Carpenters read Anderson’s letter in the magazine and were so amazed by the story behind the letter that they decided to travel hundreds of miles from their destination so he could see firsthand the vehicle he was so curious about.
The Carpenters never forgot Anderson, or his gentle demeanor. They enjoyed visiting with him so much the first time they traveled to Coon Valley that they decided to surprise him again on August 19, 2007. The Carpenters were scheduled to attend a national car show in Eastern Wisconsin, and once again decided to travel out of their way just to make an old man smile.
In order to set up the surprise visit, the Carpenters worked closely with Anderson’s good friend, DeVerne Seland, and with me at the newspaper. The conspiracy slowly unfolded after months of preparation, but the old saying plans weren’t meant to be broken didn’t apply to this scenario, after flash flooding devastated the area the night before making the Carpenter’s trip to Vernon County hauling a multi-million dollar automobile very improbable.
With many roads in and out of the area closed or damaged from the massive weather system which passed through the region the Carpenters thought twice about fulfilling their promise, but decided to venture into the mayhem area anyway. The meeting place destination moved to Westby, but the end result was just what everyone had hoped for, hot coffee, good conversation and Otis smiling with gratitude as his newfound friends opened the trailer they were hauling and offered him a second Fascination glance.
At 89-years-old, Anderson, was currently restoring an antique car of his own. He had agreed to let me do a story about it in the spring, but unfortunately God had other plans. Anderson knew first hand how wonderful random acts of kindness make you feel and how a little kindness can come from a long way or right next door.
That’s my point!
All stories copyright 2006 Westby Times and other attributed sources.