And Now a Word from Our Sponsor: We Heart Trannies!

When I put out the tip jar last week, I mentioned that I'd be glad to knit a scarf or write a profile for anyone who donates $75 or more. A couple of folks took me up on the scarf offer. Today I'd like to tell you about a business that chose the Profile Option.

Davids4Speeds LLC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (yep, I got a sponsor from Milwaukee!!) exists to please all you tranny lovers out there. No, no-- not cross-dressing trannies. Transmission trannies. (Isn't there some meta joke in there about "tranny" being a "crossover" term?) 


Bad puns aside, let me tell you what David does. He rebuilds transmissions and shifters for '60s and '70s muscle cars. This used to be his hobby but then, as so many callings do, it took over and became his life. Yes, he works seven days a week often enough, but the good news is he loves his work. 

Interior of '64 Valiant. Note the push buttons to the left of steering wheel.

While my Scion XB hardly counts as a muscle car, one day I will again own a classic vintage chrome covered 8-cylinder monster, at which point David will become My Man. Just thinking about it excites me. Over the years I've owned a 4-door '63 Galaxy 500 with more chrome than a factory full of toasters, a '67 Dodge Dart Swinger (okay, maybe not technically a muscle car, but truly an oldie and don't you love the idea of saying, "Hi, I'd like you to work on my Swinger Tranny!"?), a '67 Chevy pickup with three-on-the-tree shifter and a little throttle thingie and a mere 26,000 miles on it when I purchased it in '88. And then there was perhaps my all-time favorite (and my first car), a '64 Plymouth Valiant with a runs-forever slant-6 under the hood. I got that puppy when I was eighteen-- the car and I were the same age. It had holes in the floorboard so I could truly keep an eye on the road. And various sections of it were held together with chicken wire. But the best part? A PUSH BUTTON TRANSMISSION -- yes, it had little buttons on the far left hand side of the dash which my high school classmate Steve Schmucker likened to a vending machine. Boy I loved that car.


So if you've got an old car sitting around waiting to be resurrected and you're in the Milwaukee area, please give David a holler. And check out his gallery here. Want to see videos? Here's a link to David's blog.

Meanwhile, thanks again from Dolly Parton and me to all of you who put something in the tip jar. I think I listed all of you on the front page under sponsors but if for some reason I missed, please let me know and I'll add your name asap And for those of you who didn't put something in but want to, here's the donate button. Email me if you want to be featured in one of these Sponsor Profiles: spikegillespie@gmail.com

Thanks!
Spike