Stodgy old Heatwole

(“heat-wall”)


A ’52 Chrysler. (Photo by David LaChance.)

The August 2011 issue of Hemmings Classic Car Magazine is a hodgepodge of somewhat interesting car-articles.
But the one that stood out for me, and it wasn’t that good-looking, was a 1952 Chrysler Saratoga sedan.
That’s what Eugene Heatwole had.
Except his was two-door; the featured car was four-door, but it was Heatwole’s color, pukey green.
Stodgy old Eugene Heatwole.
A big-wig in the Dupont Company, in northern Delaware — northern Delaware is mainly Dupont.
Heatwole was also a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Wilmington, where my family were members after we moved to northern Delaware.
By then I was a teenager — reprehensible and threatening to most adults.
I remember an Immanuel deacon once telling me I was degraded.
Me a threat? Hardly.
What I was was a dork. More a pansy. I wouldn’t hurt a flea.
But of course the people I hung around with, as teenagers, were reprehensible.
Teenagers, after all, have boundless energy, and no social sense at all.
I remember the church pastor making an effort to “reach out to youth.”
It crashed.
Pilloried by his penchant to judge us abominable.
Immanuel Baptist had a surfeit of Dupont big-wigs, and most thought we teenagers were abominable.
But not stodgy old Eugene Heatwole.
For whatever reason, Heatwole and/or his wife, decided to befriend us teenagers, threat-to-social-order that we were.
I’m sure we were a handful; far more energy than Heatwole.
Our axis-of-evil comprised mainly of three guys, with a fourth somewhat involved.
They were me, Donnie Chapman, and Ted Hinderer (“hin-der-RRR”), the fourth being Arnold Fogelgrin (“foh-gull-GRIN”).
Chapman, Hinderer, and Fogey were all students at Pierre S. Dupont high school, Class of ’62, and residents of Wilmington city.
I was also Class of ’62, but from the northern suburbs.
There were also girls, chief of which was Alice Larson, who had the hots for me, beautiful blonde Sandy McDonald, the make-out queen, and a bespectacled girl named Barbara, who was stoic and practical, whose last name I can’t remember.
There was also my sister, about a year-and-a-half younger than me. She was friends with Barbara’s younger sister named Beverley.
I had no interest in Alice Larson, who was a loose cannon. I was forever shutting her off.
Hinderer worked at his father’s bank, already employed, though not yet a high-school grad.
There were others, namely some blowhard girl who Arnie had the hots for. This girl always acted like we Three Musketeers were beneath her.
—Although she was also a student at Pierre S. Dupont high school.
She was also a make-out queen.
See how far ya can go, yet keep the guy outta your pants.
There was also Gary McConalogue, half-brother of Alice. McConalogue was a greasy punk, an Elvis wannabee. Probably the most threatening of our cadre, he was always brandishing switchblades, face a permanent scowl.
Heatwole’s means of transport was his tired old ’52 Chrysler.
This was ’60 or ’61, so a ’52 Chrysler by then was an old car.
There were other adults, but Heatwole was maximum leader.
Heatwole was the great gray-haired stone face, the one most like the adults at Immanuel that abhorred us.
In fact, I think Heatwole was a deacon.
Hayrides, sledding, youth conventions; Heatwole took us everywhere.
Like the Classic-Car feature car, his car was also Fluid-Drive.
Interesting to me, it had three pedals, and took consummate skill to operate.
Heatwole picked right up, and showed us how it worked.
Ya started on a clutch, and automatic upshifts after that were when ya backed off the gas.
I guess it had a fluid coupling; lotsa noisy revs but not much oomph.
Fluid-Drive was Chrysler’s first attempt at automatic transmission.
The car was also a “Hemi,” (“hem-eee”), Chrysler’s fabulous V8 motor introduced in the 1951 model-year.
“Hemi” means hemispherical combustion chambers, with valving at each side of the combustion-chamber.
Most engines have their valves in a row, which makes the ports contorted. —Especially the exhaust-ports, if ya biased the intake-ports toward the carburetor.
With uncontorted ports, a Hemi could breathe extremely well at high speeds, so was the choice of hotrod dragsters.
“Pop the hood!” I said to Heatwole. “It’s a Hemi.”
I’m sure Heatwole is dead by now — he was probably in his early 50s with us ne’er-do-wells.
Hinderer married my sister, but became a hippie of sorts. That marriage failed.
Fogelgrin also married, and went to work for Delaware Power & Light.
—He was soon electrocuted. So much for Fogey (“foh-gee;” as in “get”).
Chapman I have no idea what happened.
I went on to college, probably the only one of our evil cadre that did.
Heatwole quit his job with Dupont, and started selling antiques with his wife.
The Chrysler was traded for a Peugeot.
I saw Heatwole again after college, in his antique-store in downtown Wilmington.
I didn’t actually talk to him, but I tried to signal how important he was.
Immanuel Baptist moved out of downtown, but soon split.
That pastor became a speaker-in-tongues.
Members thought this Devil-speak.
My parents switched to a different church.

• For over thirteen years, I and my family lived in south Jersey. Then we moved to northern Delaware, where my father had a better job. That was in December of 1957 — I was almost 14.
• There have been three Hemis. First was the version that debuted in the 1951 model-year. I lasted through 1958. During the ‘60s the second version was introduced: hemispherical cylinder-heads on the HUGE Chrysler B-block. Not too long ago the third version was introduced, taking advantage of the fabulous Hemi reputation. Although it still has hemispherical cylinder-heads, and is very powerful. —The Hemi was extremely powerful at speed, although very heavy with its wide cast-iron cylinder heads. (Recent Hemis have much lighter cast-aluminum cylinder-heads.) Drag-racers preferred the Hemi, because it could be so powerful at speed. People were still racing the early version when I was in college in the middle ‘60s.
• My parents were tub-thumping Christian zealots. (Non-believers were going straight to Hell, so were unworthy.)