December, 2011

Peter Rothenberg died suddenly last week.  Like Jackie, Pete stayed in touch, passing along interesting stories, jokes and observations.  Pete loved cars and enjoyed writing about them.  Here's a brief story about his lifelong love affair with the history making Ford Mustang.  

From Peter:

Geraldine and I went to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York before we were married and saw the introduction of the 1964 ½ Mustang on April 17^th.  We were married in August and bought our first car together the next year.  We bought a 1965 dark green coupe.  We drove that car for several years and participated in several Mustang Rallys.  We went on one rally to Grossingers in the Catskills with 2000 Mustangs from all over the east coast to celebrate the first birthday.  All the Mustangs were parked on the golf course.  There was a luncheon and a show for all where prices were given out.  The object of the rally was to arrive with the correct number of miles driven and answers to the 20 questions about things seen on the side of the road along the way.  

One day driving to work on Route 4 near the Paramus Mall a truck changed lanes and hit me in the back, pushed me into a car in the right lane which pushed me into a car in the left lane.  The car looked like an accordion but I walked away with only a scratch on my arm.

The Mustang was a 289 V-8 with an automatic transmission and air-conditioning.  It was light, maneuverable and had plenty of power.  Its only problem was there was no weight on the rear wheels so to keep the rear end from breaking loose in the snow and ice I had to put two 70 lb bags of play sand over the tires in the trunk.  

Thirty years later I bought a 1966 Red Mustang Convertible for my daughter in senior year in high school.  The kids had a “Pony Corral” for the ’64 to ’68 original Mustangs where they parked together.  She drove it until graduation and I kept it when she went to college.  Today the car is fully restored and we drive it mainly to Mustang events.  Last year we celebrated the 45^th birthday of the Mustang by driving 2400 miles to Birmingham Alabama for an event with 6000 Mustangs.

Pete and I didn’t know it at the time, but we both drove in that Mustang rally.  My first new car was, just like Pete’s, a forest green 64 ½ Mustang.  What a thrill we had that day seeing the roads approaching Grossinger’s filled with Mustangs of every color.    

Happy New Year to all Maroon Raiders wherever you are.