1968 Landau Brougham Thunderbird                 Owner: Craig Fairhurst

A Classy Thunderbird A long time ago during a prairie wind I was born in Coaldale, Alberta, Canada. Yeah, look that one up on Map Quest. Yes, I've heard all the Newfi (Polish here in the South) and Canadian jokes. I remained in Canada until 1957, just before my 6th birthday when we moved to Spokane. Both my brother and I are as Americanized as you can get. The accent and completing sentences with "eh" went bye bye a long time ago. So I've lived in the Spokane Valley for 53 years and have no desire to live anywhere else. I went to McDonald Elementary, Bowdish Jr. High, and graduated from University High (go Titans). I also graduated from Spokane Falls Community College with an AA degree and a BA in Business Management from EWU (go Eagles). After college I tried a few things including real estate agent, insurance agent, and in the summer of 1975 I worked at the Spokane Indians ballpark (cleaning the stands, ushering, working the tap room). It was at the ballpark that I met a gentleman who was a retired Liquor Store Manager. He did some checking for me and the next thing you know I was working for the Washington State Liquor Control Board. I started out as a Temporary Clerk and retired 31 years, 2 months, and 6 days later as District Manager for Eastern Washington (a quarter of the state and 32 retail outlets). It sounds impressive doesn't it, too bad the pay wasn't! Anyway a month after I retired the phone calls started trying to get me to come back to work for the Board. It took them 16 months, but they finally talked me into it. So at the end of February I have worked exactly 33 years with the Board. I am single, never married and at this point in my life I have no desire to do so. I seriously considered it a couple of times in my younger days but neither worked out. I still have both of my parents. Dad is 85 and Mom is 83 and they are celebrating their 60th in May. My Father was a Ford man most of his life that ended up with a Chevy loving son. Confused?, well, most people are. At the time when I first really started noticing cars, my Father first bought a 1962 Impala (nice car, light metallic blue) and then just before the 1966 models came out a new 1965 Impala SS, yellow with a black bucket seated interior, (man, it was a great looking car... great lines, it looked fast just sitting there). In the fall of 1967 my Father bought my Mother a 1967 Thunderbird 2 door Landau, 390, Diamond Mist Green, black vinyl top with a white bucket seat interior. It was a beautiful car than ran like crap, (wallowed like a whale, no steering feel, gutless, just a big heavy car that rolled like it was on the seas). As luck would have it on a trip back from Seattle the vinyl top separated from the roof. McCollum Ford told Mom that they could replace it but they only had the 1968 gator back pattern and not the pattern for a 1967. Dad told Mom there was a 1968 T-bird with the same color as hers on the used car lot at Major Ford and they could go look at the vinyl top on it so she could see what McCollum's was talking about. Long story short, they stopped by the lot on a Friday, the salesman talked Dad into taking the car home over the weekend and he went back Monday morning and signed the papers and I was mad as hell! He was going to give me the 1965 Impala as my first car when he was ready to get a new car and here he traded it in to this T-bird. Ok, it was good looking, Diamond Mist Green, dark green pleated cloth interior, dark green vinyl top, 429 motor... But I expected it to act like the '67, boy was I wrong! The difference was night and day; this one could accelerate and corner. The '67 Thunderbird was wrecked three times and after the third one it was sold off for parts. The '68 is a Landau Brougham special edition. Four of them were shipped to Spokane, all with the same color and options. One was driven by Carl Maxy, the Spokane attorney, and this one was driven by the owner of Major Ford. When the 69s were on their way this one ended up on Major Ford's used car lot. In the reading materials that I have found and read, it looks like this car has every option available that model year except two. In June 1989 the car was given to me as payment for a loan that I had given my Father. The following year I started the restoration of the car. It was at this time that I joined the Inland NW Thunderbird club and have been a member ever since. I will admit that the '64 through '66 model Thunderbirds have been my favorites, but I wouldn't trade or sell my '68 to get one. I love the car partly because I did a lot of the work myself but mostly because it is a classy car that I am proud to own and enjoy driving. In fact this old Chevy fan has learned to appreciate a great number of Ford products as well as other makes. If I had big bucks I would have several Fords in my collection including several Thunderbirds, but the '68 would still be my favorite. Not long after that my father, Jim Sargent, was on a business trip from Spokane, WA to Portland, OR. Anytime my father would take one of these trips he would always take time to look in the back of all the equipment dealerships that he passed. My family has always been in the contracting and construction business, so the trade-ins at these dealerships were often times hidden treasures that the typical passerby would not recognize as anything more than scrap metal. But on this particular trip there was another type of treasure, a 1956 Thunderbird that someone had traded in on a piece of construction equipment. My father immediately went into the dealership and purchased the Thunderbird. After returning to Spokane, the Thunderbird was taken to a local body shop owned by our family friend, Arthur Santa Rosa. The car remained there for approximately 3 years before completion. After the restoration the car looked magnificent and was a beautiful combination of gray body and a raven black hard top and a continental kit. But, after driving the Thunderbird for a short time my mother, Margie, decided that as beautiful as it was, it just wasn't a practical vehicle for our family's everyday needs.

Founded 1983 "Just for the Fun of it" BACK