Jeep Wrangler and FJ60: First Car Stories and Off-Road Culture ⛰️🚙

Jeep Wrangler YJ restoration and off-road culture. First car stories about growing up with Jeeps and 4x4s...

Is there anything better than learning to drive a manual transmission on a Jeep Wrangler with the doors off and the top down? ☀️🚙

In this episode, we sit down with Megan, a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan and lover of "land yachts," to discuss her automotive journey. From a family Jeep that survived three siblings to buying a classic 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60sight-unseen on eBay, Megan shares why she refuses to drive an automatic and why her "first car" experience defined her love for rugged vehicles.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• 🚙 The Family Jeep: How a single Jeep Wrangler served as the first car for Megan and her two older brothers (and survived high school).
• 🇯🇵 The eBay Gamble: The story of buying her dream truck—a red 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser—online 12 years ago and why she still drives it today.
• 🕹️ Save the Manuals: Why Megan specifically hunted down a base-model Ford Explorer just so she could have a stick shift.
• 🇮🇹 Dream Machines: Why a Maserati is the one car that might finally tempt her away from vintage SUVs.
• ❤️ Hospice & History: Megan’s touching work with Talbot Hospice and why listening to the stories of the elderly is the ultimate lesson in nostalgia.

Don't miss Megan's favorite episode featuring her FJ60 Land Cruiser master mechanic, James: https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15677751

Whether you are a Jeep loyalist, a Land Cruiser fan, or just remember the freedom of your own first car, this episode is packed with stories of the road less traveled.

🔗 Links & Resources:

• Learn about the Festival of Trees: https://talbothospice.org
• Visit LinkTree 🔗🌲for our 60+ first car stories : https://linktr.ee/carsloved

📢 Join the Conversation: Did you learn to drive on a stick shift? What was your first car? Let us know on Instagram @toallthecarsivelovedbefore

Connect with Us: Got a great car story? Email us at stories@carsloved.com. Find all our content and social links here: linktr.ee/carsloved.

Podcast News:

• Our co-host, Doug was a guest on the Driven Radio Show Podcast to share the origin story of our podcast and connecting with his late father through his DeLorean project.
• Check out the amazing article about the podcast by Elevate Society and Tal Gur, author of "The Art of Fully Living"
• Feedspot selected To All The Cars I've Loved Before in their list of Top 100 Car Podcasts and 31 Best Road Trip Podcasts For Your Drive
• Our co-host, Doug was featured in this magazine article along with his DeLore...

Transcript

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Exploring the Jeep Experience

Christian 0:02

Listener land. You have found the podcast that's balanced and rotated, but never aligned. It's leaking a little from the oil pan, yet still overflowing. The podcast whose timing belt needs a few more notches, but the extended warranty will always get you to the next mile post, where sheep metal gets metaphysical, where horsepower takes a backseat to horseplay. The podcast that sits at the corner of Memory Lane and Nostalgia Avenue. You're about to take a permanent detour. We have no intention of fixing. You have found to all the cars I've loved before, your podcast where every car tells a story, every machine has a soul and every car has a culture. What do you think? Pretty good, right, does that work? All of those people? Yeah, okay, phenomenal Onward, oh, and we have that new domain. Should we talk about that?

Christian 0:55

domain, or should we get straight into today's theme. Let's get straight in Today's theme. Are you Okay? So Jeep has this kind of saying if you look around, the Jeep experience, right. So I thought you know kind of the Jimi Hendrix, I'm a big classic rock guy Are you experienced, right, the Jimi Hendrix? So are you Jeep experienced is what I want to know and we're going to dive into that a little bit later. So any thoughts on, maybe, where the Jeep name came from? Everybody who's on the podcast today is on a Jeep. What do you think Can we roll with?

Doug 1:31

it. I do have a joke about a Jeep and it involves rental cars. Okay, I did not come up with this, but I heard about it. What's the difference between a Jeep and a rental car?

Christian 1:49

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I know this one. There are places you wouldn't take a rental car, is that it?

Doug 1:55

No, there are places. You won't take a Jeep.

Christian 2:02

I think I had the inverse of the punchline. It's how my mind works, lovely. We have jokes on the podcast. It implies the Jeep can go anywhere.

Doug 2:09

But if it's your Jeep, you're probably not going to take it some places. But if you want to have fun, actually rent a Jeep and then you can go anywhere. Oh, you have the best of both worlds. Yeah.

Christian 2:21

You could just you could, selma and Louise it into the Pacific Ocean and it really doesn't matter.

Doug 2:27

Just pay for the extra. Extra insurance Right on, right on.

Christian 2:32

Hey, so what about future guests? Any any word on? I know we have a backlog of people We've. Let's take a step back here in time. If you would listener land, let's go into the Wayback Machine. When we started this podcast, lo, these six or seven months ago, we said to people hey, do you want to be on a podcast? People would say, no, you're an idiot. The podcast could be terrible, but now we're still idiots. But we have a list of people we're trying to get on the show. Do we want to talk at all about some of the some of the people in the queue right now, doug, or should we stick to how easy it is to be on the show?

Christian 3:11

Well let's see, I put them on. I love putting them on the spot.

Doug 3:17

I love the look of confusion. We had your son on. He is a trip. That boy's a trip. We did a little sneak preview of him talking about his time doing National Guard and learning to drive a Hummer.

Christian 3:34

No, no, no, Actually I got to correct you. Sorry, I meant to correct you, I didn't. It's not National Guard, it's Army, reserves, army.

Megan 3:40

Reserves A lot of people make that mistake.

Christian 3:42

Army Reserves, army Reserves. A lot of people make that mistake. Army reserves, that's okay. Yeah, army reserves Sorry.

Doug 3:45

We had Michael Myers on, who has written several children's books about nine Coolest guy Great website. Tisforturbocom. A is for Apple, t is for Turbo. You get it Genius. We've, of course, had a Guinevere from Frescia brothers. Can't say enough great things about her. I just spoke to Dave from the small car company, which is not a car company anymore, but he was a referral from Guinevere. Looking forward to talking to him.

Christian 4:18

She's the best.

Doug 4:19

And yeah, we've. We've got some great ones recorded and hoping to talk to Dave in the future.

Christian 4:29

And this is how the show happens. It's all about family. Today's guest we're going to cue her in in a minute. Has we get this a lot? But it didn't dawn on me today where the parents got a car. She's one of several, several, several siblings and the car was just kind of a hand-me-down and worked its way down. That that's the way I got my my uh rabbit gti one of my favorite cars there, but I didn't think of that car as a hand-me-down. Right, you ever get hand-me-downs from siblings or friends. They're're a little bit older or bigger than you are Clothes shoes, the toys, whatever comes to you.

Doug 5:09

I mean, we had one gentleman on, rob, the part-time car photographer right. His car was used to help friends two or three friends pass the driver's test right. That was unique and maybe our guest, maybe our guest today, um, her car might have been in a similar boat, except with family that's such a great callback.

Christian 5:33

Rob was hilarious. The car just. I don't know if it was easy to drive or everybody wanted to drive it, or the car just had good luck. I think it was small was the key.

Christian 5:44

It was easy to park yeah, yeah, yeah, very good, yeah, yeah, and the way the show works is so guinevere. Uh, fricia was on the show and she had a great time. We're trying trying to get her dad on. They own a garage in connecticut, so all about family. Like it says, it's all about family. Okay, let's get into calls to action and all we really have here. I just want to say a couple of things because we've got to move along kind of quickly here. Everycarhasaculturecom, everycarhasaculturecom. We're taking over the internet one domain at a time and so we got that one Also, we wanted to say so.

Christian 6:24

Doug is always out in the community. Ok, to all the cars I love before. Very often, doug I'm in, I'm in Florida, a thousand miles away, but he's very often at the Annapolis City Dock at the Cars and Coffee. So if you see his car very distinctive, distinctive, delorean just walk up to him and just say hey, man, like your podcast, hate your co-host. It's fun. Just let them know what you really think. So how often do they have them up there?

Doug 6:51

Uh, every every Sunday. It's going to stop soon, um, but but I'm trying to go to other ones. Um, annapolis town center, um, there is one inia called katie's cars and coffee, which apparently goes year-round um, and they'll have like 400 cars there. Problem is I have to leave at about 5 30 am to get there to get a spot. So I, I, I.

Doug 7:17

That's too early but I'm hoping to get there all right, I I also have a um, just you know, in ways of making people smile with the DeLorean. I have a upcoming birthday party that I'm bringing the car to for a bunch of six year olds that the son loves back to the future. So his parents thought it would be a nice surprise for her to have just a DeLorean show up for a little bit so looking forward to that looking forward to the excitement up for a little bit.

Doug 7:46

So looking forward to that, looking forward to the excitement, um, you know, so many people our age love the car. But to find somebody, um, six years old, that really is all about back to the future and wants to see the car, I can't wait.

Christian 7:57

Right, right, I hear you Lovely. All right, we'll walk up to him and introduce yourself at the Annapolis cars and coffee. All right, so, as we kind of him, and introduce yourself at the Annapolis Cars and Coffee. All right, so, as we kind of teased at the top, let's get into Jeeps. Are you? Jeep experience is the question of the day. And before I hand this off to Doug, tell us about a little bit about his Jeep experience and we pull Megan into the conversation.

Christian 8:18

Just can tell you a little bit of mine.

The Jeep Family Legacy

Christian 8:21

I didn't really come from a Jeep culture background, but one kind of uh got my hands on one. Let's see, this was just a few years ago. I'm gonna say, golly, maybe eight, eight years ago, seven or eight years ago at this time at this, and I live in florida, okay, so you just yank off the top, you yank everything out of it, you take off the doors and stick it in the garage. So it is basically denuded, you know, 10, 11 months out of the year, and it's just so fun. It is just so fun. You get your sun, get your fresh air, get your tunes, you get out, you're moving from one place to the other. But I was surprised by how much fun I I had in that car and it was a completely different experience. Doors on top up than not, and it's great that it can go anywhere and crawl up a 45 degree angle. But, boy, just cruising the beach and that thing was a trip so doug.

Doug 9:20

I remember yours which one Do you remember?

Christian 9:23

the first one I had, I do when we first met in college.

Megan 9:27

The beater.

Christian 9:29

It was held together. I think Doug got the duct tape option package on that one and that was holding together the doors and possibly even the engine block.

Doug 9:39

It was a CJ-7.

Christian 9:40

That's right, that's right, but I remember the one with the American flag on the side. The olympic version, yep 1994.

Doug 9:48

Yeah, that was a. That was a fun vehicle there there's uh, yeah, that was a great car. Um, I want to say I owned it post 9-11 and I got more waves post 9-11. Is the flag, because of the flag, yeah that's really neat.

Christian 10:04

That's really. I have a picture somewhere of that. I was looking for it the other day I was going through pictures, the picture with the. It's the picture with the kayaks on top right it is our ill-fated yeah, our ill-fated adventure where, amazingly we didn't die. But I gotta ask you question how did our guest today make income into our lives?

Doug 10:26

Well, you know the gift that keeps giving. We've had some. We've had some great guests on and I've been fortunate enough to reconnect with old high school friends as some of these guests. But James McRae, great guy, has his own specialty car shop in Easton, maryland, mcrae Enterprises, and he's a true friend of the show, like so many others, and he just keeps telling us about great people. And that brings us to today's guest who had her car, in which we'll get to into his shop for repairs because it was too old to be repaired by your normal shop, because they're worried about if something breaks they can't find the part. I totally get it, owning two old cars myself, what a great car.

Christian 11:21

So, or maybe what a great car. Yeah, maybe the the next generation of mechanics is so used to getting certified on computers and in high tech that that's what I think is. A lot of these shops don't want to touch something. That would take them time to learn. It's kind of out of the wheel.

Doug 11:41

Sorry, go ahead. You've got both right. And then just availability of parts right. Maybe you've got to find a used part, maybe the part is $800 because there's only a few left. Maybe you have to rebuild it. There's so many reasons why, but fortunately we have James keeping the dream alive and we have Megan.

Christian 12:02

And we have Megan. Most importantly, today we have Megan. Megan, how are you today? I'm doing well, thanks for having me there. She is, and she's walking through the doors of the very large Cars Love One Cars Love Plaza studio into the very big overstuffed couches Think of the Tonight Show. That's what we have here. How are you doing?

Megan 12:26

I'm doing well.

Christian 12:30

So you're not in Buffalo, but you're a Buffalo Bills fan. But let's step in the way back machine. Let's go way back and talk about your dad's Jeep. Do you remember that? Did you have fun with that? Did that lay any groundwork for something to come to the future? Let's, let's get your your take on jeeps yeah, so, um.

Megan 12:50

so before I could drive, my dad had a jeep, a cj7, and this was before either my brothers could drive. And, uh, so my dad bought it for himself just to plow snow I, because I grew up in so plowing snow, pulling stumps, doing those kinds of things. And my oldest brother then got to drive that car once he turned 16. And by the time I came along at 16, we had a Jeep Wrangler. The CJ7 had been sold, but then we had a Jeep Wrangler, so that became my car and my other brother, so the two of us had to use that car and I loved it because that's how I learned to drive.

Megan 13:26

On that car I learned to drive stick shift, which, um, was the reason why I wanted stick shifts, car stiff, stick shift cars in the future. Um, but Jeeps are ton of fun. We would take the top off in the summer and the doors and it would just stay off fall summer. We would throw a tarp over it overnight if it was going to rain, and we just had a lot of stories with those jeeps. Good times for sure yeah, I'm.

Doug 13:51

I'm shaking my head because yep, had that. Um, it's amazing how great the tops are now versus way back when, and I know you had a hard top, so it was either it was on or it was off. There was no in between with those.

Megan 14:05

Yep.

Doug 14:06

Yeah, yeah and and yeah, great story. So that that Jeep that your dad, so you learned to drive, stick shift on that Jeep. And then your dad bought a Jeep for the children, right? You and your two brothers, right?

Megan 14:22

Yep.

Doug 14:23

Yeah, tell us about the next experience in the Jeep family.

Megan 14:28

Well then I had, so then I drove the Wrangler in high school and then, I guess, part of college, and then we've had various Jeeps in the family. My mom then had a Cherokee. Both my brothers in there as adults have purchased Wranglers. I had a Grand Cherokee recently. So there's been a lot of Jeeps in the family, which has been kind of fun.

Doug 14:52

Yeah, there are all these great slogans and I'm surprised Christian didn't get this one. But it's a Jeep thing, right that's such a great one.

Christian 15:02

Sorry, christian, no, you got it. I'm glad you called it back. It's a jeep thing.

Doug 15:06

So, yeah, um, gotta love jeeps, right, it's, it's the american thing, right, and it goes. You know, speaking of conrad, right, um, going way back to the military, right, the, the Jeep, the original Jeep, yes, was a military vehicle, right, and it spawned what became the Jeep that we know and love today. Right, but it spawned since, I don't know, let's see that 40s maybe, and jeeps were made by actually multiple companies Ford, I think, chrysler maybe, I think Willie's, um, maybe, came up with the successful uh design, but during, during a wartime, uh production. Yet everybody and their brother building whatever was needed. In fact, they could ship a jeep in a box, basically, and it could be assembled overseas, and they did that quite often just to get it, just the quickest way to get them out the door and make them fit in, you know, on the boat, on the aircraft carrier. Would it drop it off the plane, right?

Doug 16:26

willie's overland yes, willie's overland. Thank you very much yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christian 16:31

So where did jeep come from, do we I? I was doing a little. You know, we have hundreds of researchers on staff here at one cars love plaza and they were looking into slightly dozens, and they were looking into where jeep comes from and this is one of my favorite ones that they came up with and who knows if this is real or apocryphal or what jeep stands for. Just enough essential parts which I like. I've not heard that before.

Christian 16:58

Oh, I haven't heard that the for gp where jeep it would be. This be the sounding out of the letters GP. Did GP stand for general purpose at all or was there another reason for it? Another theory I read is that Jeep is after Eugene, the Jeep, the dog-cat hybrid pet from.

Doug 17:21

Popeye Yep, yeah, it was a cartoon character.

Christian 17:24

Yeah, no clue about that, something like that, popeye Yep, yeah, it was a cartoon character?

Doug 17:26

yeah, no clue about that. Something like that.

Christian 17:29

I've heard that one too. And last one for you before we move on here In as early as World War I, jeep was used as a slang term for new soldiers or untested vehicles. So who knows where that came from. That could have been a rural phrase from someplace in the middle of nowhere. Now it's, it's, it's become what we all know. But okay, enough trivia. Back to you, partner, take it away.

Doug 17:53

Yeah, so, um, so, so we had this family, family of Jeeps, right? Um, I believe, megan, in in uh, high school, your older brother used to take you to school in the jeep yeah, then it became your car and your turn to do that for your younger brother at one point right no, no, I never had a younger brother, I just had two older brothers oh, just two older brothers four and two.

Megan 18:18

One four years older, one two years older, right one brother four years older, one brother two years older, so yeah, she was the end of the line.

Christian 18:24

Gotcha, gotcha, they gave up. They said we got a perfect, no more.

Doug 18:27

Yeah, exactly, Exactly so that that Jeep was used by all three siblings.

Christian 18:34

Yep.

Doug 18:35

Yep and uh who. What ended up happening to that Jeep? Who got it? Where did it go?

Megan 18:42

It was. It was sold, I think by the time I went to college. I had it actually at college for part of my freshman year and then, I think after that, my dad sold it and that was the end of the Jeep.

Doug 18:58

Yeah, what a great college vehicle. Yes, it was, yeah, my best friend when he was going to college. His roommate had a Jeep and, man, we had so much fun with it, which inspired me to buy a Jeep, which I then learned was not great for commuting every day, and so I went back to a different car. But you know still love Jeeps. When Christian had his Jeep, I was thinking about buying another one. It's just not great for an everyday car, but some people make it work. Some people make it work. In fact, we interviewed somebody somewhat recently, jeremy, who has an invention that we're going to talk about in a future episode for the Freedom Tops and securing them in the new Jeep.

Christian 19:44

Oh yes, yes, Yep about in a future episode for the freedom tops and securing them in the new.

Doug 19:46

Oh yes, yeah, yeah, yep. So yeah there's, you know it's. It's a jeep thing, right very true yeah, so um, when you were so post-college um you're still into four wheel drive vehicles you bought a.

Megan 20:10

I bought a Chevy blazer.

Doug 20:12

Okay.

Megan 20:13

And I was headed out West and so I needed a, wanted a four wheel drive truck. So I bought a Chevy blazer to head out to Colorado and, um, and that was good and um, then that I pretty much drove that thing until it died and was unsafe to drive and after that I wanted to get, wanted to get back to a standard vehicle. So then I ended up buying a, um, a, oh my gosh, I'm forgetting uh.

Megan 20:40

Ford um Explorer, and that was. That was standard. So I wanted I'm forgetting A Ford Explorer. That was standard. So I wanted a standard car again, but I had to buy the absolute base model in order to get standard. But that was what I wanted. I enjoy driving more than automatic.

Doug 20:58

Yeah, no, I love stick shift cars, having broken my left ankle about 20 years ago Yep, 20 years ago, 20 plus years ago. It's not something I can do every day, but it's like a treat, if you will. So, yeah, my everyday car is certainly automatic, but I do have two older stick shift cars, including the De delorean that everybody's probably tired of hearing about can.

Christian 21:27

Can I pop in here real quick. You know these three, you know, is she, she? She buys cars. That also are kind of verbs, right? So the chevy blazer, she's blazing a trail out west, you know, not unlike a covered wagon, then she's exploring in the ford and then she's going to go cruising in her next automobile. So it's very, this is very. Yeah, it's like you're kind of like you're magellan or something.

Doug 21:57

Anyway, sorry, go ahead, right yeah, so, uh, yeah, so you, you went to an explorer and, uh, I think there were obviously cars in between. But, um, what are your daily drivers? And save the best for last, which is actually the older, oldest car yeah, so um so well with the explorer.

Megan 22:20

I drove that thing until it was pretty much dead and my dream car at that point was an old Land Cruiser FJ60. My time in Colorado is when I was introduced to them for the first time. I kind of fell in love with those old trucks and I had some friends who drove them and I had an experience where I actually depended on one to get me safely to where I needed to go and I realized how awesome those trucks were. So I ended up buying one, a 1985 Land Cruiser, 12 years ago, and I bought it on eBay, which was oh wow, no way Side of the scene, huh.

Megan 23:00

Yes, yes, but the guy who was selling it had lots of pictures, lots of great descriptions so I felt like he was pretty fair about things. So I bought that and I've been driving that for a long time. It was my daily driver for a little bit, so that was kind of maxed out. But you know, driving around here in Easton, you know I'm not really on the highway much. I'm, you know, five minutes from work so I didn't have to drive on the highway too much. But I wanted to get it was an absolute necessity that it was going to be six shift Again. I had to have, I had to have standard, just more interesting, more fun to drive. So I've had that for years and it's had the engine rebuilt and then it's had some more work done recently where I had it with James and he got everything all tuned up, ready to go and it drives so well. And I do have another car right now. I do have a Toyota Highlander, but that's been in the shop. So I've been driving the Land Cruiser for the past week.

Doug 24:03

Yeah, old, old, reliable. 've been driving the Land Cruiser for the past week, old, reliable.

Dream Cars and Exploration

Doug 24:06

What color is the Land Cruiser?

Megan 24:08

It is red.

Doug 24:09

I was going to say it's got to be red.

Megan 24:11

Yeah, it's red.

Doug 24:13

I see a theme here.

Megan 24:14

Yeah, I know, you know that's funny, because I never really thought about that. I guess my Explorer was silver, but yeah, the other ones were all like some shade red.

Christian 24:25

That's what you are. You're kind of this bright, exploring big truck land yacht person. That's what you are. You're a throwback to those, the ancient explorers. They would just get in a ship. You know the way that you want to go. You know you get in your Land Cruiser and go marauding Right Like these. They would just get in a ship and all around the year they wouldn't care, they would just let's go, let's go to new worlds. You know it's fantastic.

Megan 24:53

It's so fun. It just makes me happy to drive it. You know I've considered selling it over the years and I can't'm in it. It's fun just driving around town. People give me a thumbs up. You know I'm parking a lot. Somebody will comment on the truck. So it's really fun to drive. But yeah, I can't get rid of it.

Christian 25:13

Highlanding could also be a verb. What are you doing this weekend? I'm going highlanding. There you go, highlanding Highland.

Doug 25:34

Sorry, go ahead, doug. Well-chosen words, In fact, the 1980, the FJ60 Toyota. Land Cruiser was called the Samurai.

Christian 25:39

I believe in Japan Really Automotive knowledge. I dig that If you will, Samurai, okay.

Doug 25:44

And so that car, just curious if you uh, it has a four liter inline six, is that correct? If you know megan?

Megan 25:51

mine um, I don't know okay, that's all right.

Doug 25:56

Does it take diesel? No, or regular? Regular okay. So it's probably a four liter inline six. Yeah, really, really, really harkens back. What a great vehicle. There's some somebody in my neighborhood has one. I just got to find them when they're outside and see if they want to be on the show as well. But I just want to talk to them about that car. Yeah.

Christian 26:29

So dream cars.

Doug 26:29

Are we about ready to start talking about dream cars, or yeah? Yeah, I mean, I think she has one of her dream cars right for sure yes, that was, that was it.

Megan 26:35

You know people are like what, but yeah, that was my dream car well, I heard that it changed, though you have a new dream car.

Christian 26:41

We're dreaming of something new and has nothing to do with the land cruising, highlanding, blazing jeeping or marauding. What, what, what? What is our new? What do you want next?

Megan 26:54

so I've always really liked maseratis, for whatever reason. I mean I say always, but just in the past, I don't know, 12 years or so, I've kind of noticed them they're. You know, they're not all that common, um, but they kind of have a cool look to them. So that's just something that I'm maserati, maserati but I do.

Megan 27:19

I do like them. They've got a pretty, a pretty unique look and, yeah, they're not as popular as you like. You know some of the other brands you see around town, so we'll see. I don't know if I'll ever get to that.

Christian 27:29

Boy, those Italians can really do styling, can't they? Shoes, suits, churches, okay, cars, goodness, yeah, beautiful. It's funny. You mentioned that because there was one for sale at not an insane price not far from me and I thought it was just beautiful. It was gray, it was the Ghibli and I wanted to go drive it. And I thought, no, if you go drive it, you're going to buy it and it's a terrible idea because I want to make it a daily driver. And then, you know, the oxygen sensor is probably three thousand dollars to switch out on this stupid thing. So I was able to disengage.

Celebrating Talbot Hospice and Festival

Christian 28:14 Christian 28:14

You know, as you, as you go through life, you know how you have these fatal flaws. They're kind of embedded deep in your DNA and you're just like, yeah, we can't mess with that because it's this kryptonite, right? So you got to just kind of stay away from these behaviors that are going to get you in trouble. But I was on my bicycle today and I saw, boy, I saw a white one going, turning and boy, just look at the swoops and the curves of the car. It's just so attracted to the eye and distinctive and different. And I do think that the little trident, you know the little trident uh what do they call it?

Christian 28:55

the little symbol on the car is so distinctive and different. It makes me want seafood. Frankly, frankly. What do you think, doug? Are we on to something or no, I don't know about that I could go for some oysters right now.

Doug 29:13

For listener land. If we have anybody with a Maserati obsession, Maserati background, love to talk to you, or if you have a referral.

Christian 29:24

Yeah, it's good. Maserati is kind of a weird long word that begins with M, my last name. I won't say it, but it's also a weird long word that begins with M, and I thought that was always a little bit of a little bit of an interesting point there. So let's move on. Hey, are we OK to move on causes here? Partner, she has a great one and when we okay. So for listener land, if you come on the show, you fill out a little bit of a form and it sends us some, some of your the information, like what were your cars, you know, and any causes that you have.

Christian 29:59

And megan wrote something really beautiful. And if it's okay with you, megan and Doug, I would just can I just read it verbatim? We've actually never had this happen before. Is that okay, megan? Sure, yeah, and so this is about hospice and I will let her talk about the organization that she's involved with and actually they're doing something really neat at the end of November and when you hear this episode, we're going to drop it ahead of time so that you can go to this if you'd like.

Christian 30:28

So, about hospice and about senior citizens in this country, megan wrote not really a cause, but I do wish more people, especially young people, would give elderly people more time, respect and patience. Most of us will be there someday and it's a whole different world after all those years. I feel like they are so often brushed aside so easily, as if they have nothing to offer. We should help them when they need help navigating a more modern world. Listening to their sayings and their stories, knowing the joy they have in telling them, they will probably give us a lesson or a glimpse of what life was like way back when, and I think that is just beautiful.

Christian 31:13

And, if I can say something here, you only get to be old if you're lucky. A lot of people don't even make it there. I am actually just, uh, we were. I won't tell you my age, but, uh, a high school classmate of mine passed away, lived on the West coast, passed away recently. Shock right, you only get to get old if you're lucky. And I I think what you wrote was just beautiful. So please tell us a little bit about where you were, what they do and how this came into your life, please.

Megan 31:46

Oh, okay, well, thank you.

Megan 31:48

So I work at Talbot Hospice, so it's a hospice over on the Eastern shore of Maryland and I am the volunteer coordinator there and I've been there for five years and prior to that I had been at another nonprofit in town managing an elder law project where we were trying to get older people their wills and powers of attorney, and I really just enjoyed the time that I got to spend with older people, just hearing their stories, hearing their one liners, so much about what life was like.

Megan 32:17

And you know, you realize the importance and the lives that they have lived and if you can just take the time to listen to them and you're gonna get something back, you're gonna get a good laugh, they're gonna teach you something and you're gonna be better off for it. And I really enjoy my job at Talbot Hospice. As I said, I'm the volunteer coordinator, so I work with the volunteers, but I meet a lot of the patients and the families and just amazing people and I absolutely love being there, and for a long time. I like old things, I like old people and it's a good place for me to be.

Christian 32:53

And I think that is truly. That is just God's work, that is the work of angels. What people in hospice do and you know it takes a team. So everything y'all do to lift that up and make that work to me is just so beautiful. And a couple of years ago my father's long-term girlfriend passed away. It was a sudden thing, cancer but the hospice people that were there he was telling me just from another world I mean real life heroes. So you were mentioning to us earlier that there was a special event going on here.

Christian 33:33

And as we sort of guide the podcast show here gently to the off ramp, I wanted to have you tell us a little bit about what's happening at the end of November with your organization.

Megan 33:46

Sure, so every year there's the Festival of Trees here in Easton and it's put on by the Friends of Hospice and they're actually a separate nonprofit organization and they do the Festival of Trees, but everything that they all the money that they raise goes directly to Talbot Hospice. So it's beautiful, it's held at the Tidewater here in Easton and local people can buy trees and decorate them and then they've got the show for the weekend right after Thanksgiving. So starting that Saturday, the 30th Tuesday, and you can go to the Tidewater and see this room that looks like an absolute winter wonderland with all of the trees. It's absolutely beautiful, and Friends of Hospice has been doing this for, I think, 30 to 40 years and raised a lot of money for Talbot Hospice, which is wonderful.

Christian 34:34

I love that. Thank you for that, and if you want to learn more, we can probably. Yeah, we could. Okay, so Talbot Hospice that's T-A-L-B-O-T Hospice dot org and I'm sure they will have more information. We're going to put this, these links and this information, to show notes. So if you're, if you're checking this out on what we'll have, all this there that you can, that you can link to. So, megan, it was wonderful to meet you. Thank you for taking time to talk to us, and I have to tell you that I'm slightly annoyed that the Bills are doing so well and my New Orleans Saints just fired their head coach today.

Megan 35:16

But you know what?

Christian 35:17

You're a wonderful and delightful person, and I can't hold it against you that you were successful.

Megan 35:23

Well, you know, Bills fans have been through a lot over the years. I've been a diehard Bills fan. I had a rough go, you know, in the early 90s.

Christian 35:29

Well, I'm proud of you. I'm always proud of somebody for sticking with their team. That's kind of the way I've been from Louisiana originally with my Saints. So, hey, I want to wish you all good things, have a great rest of the season and you are welcome on our show anytime. Thank you, thank you so much, guys. All right, well, you have just heard the high revving, low mileage, late model goes to 11. Heard around the world. Authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He is Doug at cars lovecom. I am Christian. At cars lovecom. She was, most importantly, megan. And hey, please, if you like what you hear, please follow and tell a friend. We only get to grow and keep doing this if we widen the tent.

Christian 36:13

Okay, so check out our link tree at linktree slash CarsLove. I'll give that to you again linktree slash CarsLovecom. You can see all of our online presences and hey, I'm sure we'll see you at the next local car show we go to. Doug wanted to sneak something in here. What was it? Partner it was. Oh, info at carslovecom for anything you want to know. Or just hit us up. Hit us up separately at either Doug at carslove lovecom, christian at cars lovecom. No-transcript.