Mustang At Home in the Smithsonian
A Maryland woman has donated her all-original, one-owner, 40-year-old 1965 Mustang to the Smithsonian Institute, the nation's attic, where she spent three decades as a curator before retiring in 1994. The light blue coupe with 193,000 accumulated miles was accepted by the National Museum of American History where it went on display with no more restoration than a wash job, according to the Washington Post last Wednesday.
The American History Museum now owns 72 historical vehicles and the whole Smithsonian, even more. In his account of the museum taking the donation, Post reporter Hank Stuever noted: "The Mustang. You look at this car and think of young men for some reason. White T-shirts. George Bush and the Dekes. You think of tract-house Lotharios who just got their driver's licenses, here to pick up your sister."
"Who hasn't driven a car," Stuever continued, "that, on some sentimental level, we wished to donate to the Museum of Ourselves, and have people listen to our stories about being young, carefree and newly wheeled? It's hard to say goodbye to a car, especially a great car. Sometimes they tow it away before you're ready. Sometimes you get a chance to clean out your pennies and candy wrappers before a salesman gets in it and drives it behind the dealership -- to where, you're never sure. To Mexico? To the chop shop?"
Actually, a light blue Mustang was the feature car of Ford Division's famous
1966 advertising campaign, "Six and the Single Girl," which evidently fitted donor Eleanor McMillan to a T. -- Mike Davis
Hat tip: The Car Connection