File under: “search and rescue mission.” I remember when my mother Susie Duncan Sexton bought this Pontiac Grand Am in 1994. I believe it’s the only car in her lifetime that she ever got to special order brand new. She called it her “dead mother car” in her inimitable way.

Yes, she purchased it with cash from her inheritance from my grandmother‘s passing. And in some way, I guess it’s now my “dead mother car.” We are an irreverent family.

Anyway, at the time she really liked this style and she liked what she called its “ice skater butt.” She wanted it to have a spoiler, she wanted it to be green, and she wanted it to have a red stripe. Performance wasn’t necessarily of interest, although there are some side benefits to the package that came with those details.

I remember her also being very frustrated because the actual green she loved – army green – was available the following year, not in 1994 when she received this. She would always say, “damn my time.” Or one could argue she was always ahead of her time.

This car has sat unused for the better part of a decade, maybe two. It is exactly 30 years old now. I guess it’s a classic? It’s a weird feeling for me … and they got it in early October of that year, right around this time. Visiting me at college, having driven this to Crawfordsville, they were so excited about it.

John attended a 1980s/1990s Pontiac car event a few weeks back and suddenly decided it was time for us to make this our project. We both tend to personify inanimate objects – him cars, and me everything else. So there’s a lot of sentimental attachment here, and we look forward to giving this car a new lease on life. Thank you to my dad Don Sexton for letting us take this off his hands.