My ride: CT couple still owns the first car they bought after marrying 60 years ago

It was purchased out of necessity and kept by Jack and Barbara Brooks because it never quit being useful. "That was our first car that we bought when we got married 60 years ago in 1966," he said a few weeks ago.

He was referring to the dark green 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente convertible with tan interior that was parked in the driveway of the couple's home in Meriden. Brooks recalled its arrival.

"My wife and I just got married. We were married for about a year and we needed a second car 'cause we were both working, said Brooks. "Where I was working, my secretary was selling her car, so I said, ‘How much?' and I bought it."

It was no doubt unimaginable at the time that the Comet would stick around for six decades. It just sort of happened. The years of ownership accumulated.

"When you're young, you don't have a whole lot of money to put into cars and repairs and all, so I decided I was just going to try to keep fixing it," he said. 

"I got the mechanic's manual and anytime something went wrong, I read the manual and I read how to fix it, so most of the mechanical work I was doing and keeping it maintained just the sake of keeping a car; not for the sake of keeping it for 60 years," he said. 

The Mercury kept being driven. "That's what I did. After maybe 20 years, I said, well, this car is still running pretty good, I think I'll continue to keep it," Brooks said.

With the passage of even more time, he decided that it was perhaps becoming special because of its age and body style. "Yeah, maybe after 30 years or so," he said, suggesting he was divided on whether to park it or continue to use it at that point. 

"It's got a good body. There are not many of them around...I think I'll just garage it now, but I still drove it to work every single day. I worked in Meriden and I parked right outside my office so I could see it, so for the next 30 years when I was working I was still driving it."

Work was only four miles away, though, so it wasn't heavily used. Today, it has 145,000 miles on the odometer. "I rebuilt the engine when it had 100,000 on it; new bearings and pistons and the whole job, valve seats. I had a neighbor who was a mechanic that helped me tear it down and rebuild the engine."

The Comet is powered by a 289-cubic-inch V8 engine and has a four-speed manual transmission with floor shifter; an unusual configuration for the model. It also has a Rotunda tachometer mounted atop the center of the dashboard.

"I've never had it professionally restored except the body. At one point the quarter panels were starting to rust out so I took it to a body shop and I had it painted at that point. This is the original color," Brooks reported.

While the Caliente version of the Comet signifies the top trim level for the model, it lacks two common features that drivers appreciate, and which forced Barbara to eventually stop using it. "She drove it for a long time herself but since it has no power steering, no power brakes, she has a tough time driving it," Brooks said.

Over the years, the Mercury has been taken on vacations to Florida and Niagara Falls. It has also been used for top-down transportation at weddings.  

"I was still driving it until I retired 15 years ago," said Brooks, who is now 83. These days, the car gets limited use. "I play racketball on weekends in Middletown and I drive it to Middletown and I park it in a church parking lot."

Given the focus and back story on the Comet, it might be natural to assume that it's the only classic car that Brooks has owned, but that's not the case. He got one other about 40 years ago.

"When my daughter was in high school, she wanted a Mustang. We bought an old beat-up, rundown Mustang -- a '68. It was a fastback. A really nice body style. We worked together while she was in high school and we fixed it up. I kept that until two years ago. Completely did everything on it. That was a restoration; the body, the mechanics and everything, and I used to take that to shows."

So where'd it go? "I gave that to my daughter," he said.

Brooks said the durable Comet has never been in an accident and that it always get a thumbs up when people spot it. That's likely because it's more stylish than another Ford product built on the same platform. "There weren't many made and it wasn't a popular car back then. The Falcons were more popular; only because they were cheaper," he said.

In chatting, Brooks confirmed an anecdote in a My Ride column last December on a 1965 Mercury Comet Caliente that another couple had owned for 61 years. They said it had fly-away hubcaps, which was why the car had hubcaps from a Ford Mustang, which was also built on Falcon underpinnings. 

"Really hard to put the hubcaps on, and once in a while you lose 'em," Brooks reported. "You hear it going down the road, ‘Oh, I got to get that.' It takes me 15 minutes to put the hubcap back on. And that's why you don't see many Comets with the original hubcaps on 'em."

Harwinton native Bud Wilkinson writes about classic cars and motorcycles for Hearst Connecticut Media. He previously reported for The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio and was columnist for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix before reporting for KSAZ-TV in Phoenix where he won a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and an Emmy Award for commentary. He may be reached by email at [email protected].

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