DeJaVue all over again .......

Just had a little heart flutter.

Watching some late night TV, hoping around and there was a show called Crusin Ohio. Interviewing and looking at some old cars and shows.

He starts talking with an owner, they scan to a car, turns out to be a '57 Crown Imperial, four-door, Well, in my younger days in Nevada when I had much more money than sense, I ended up buying a '57 Imperial, four-door. They panned all around it, and it was exactly like mine. Same color interior, plastic seat covers, which had been left on, so same color interior. Brought back a lot of memories.

Then, during the interview, he mentioned that he had bought it in Nevada, my jaw dropped, as did my heart. I'm sure there were a number of four-door Imperials of that color, with that interior, just like mine, but, well, it could have been mine .............. what are the odds on that?

Earlier, out there, I had a Studebaker Golden Hawk, loved that car, really fast, and then, no speed limit on the highway in Nevada. Often took advantage of that. Long, straight roads, could see for miles, desert or nothing on either side, well, you can imagine. Driving in Oregon one time, a deer, jumped on my hood, and popped it, slammed down on the top, no one hurt but some damage.

Got it fixed, new paint job, all new leather interior, it really looked sharp.

A car salesman in Reno used to come into the Primm often and eat lunch, had lunch with him a few times, or at least talked with him as he passed the table. Anyway, he had seen the Hawk parked outside, found out I owned it, he wanted it. We worked out a deal, my Hawk, and cash, and I ended up with the Imperial that was very low mileage, I think a year or so old then, previously owned by a lady who had a chauffer and they used the car very sparingly.

That is how this "boxman" at the time, very impressed with myself, Louis Roth suits, allegator shoes, white on white shirts, silk ties, really impressive, 26 or so years old, wearing a "suit" in a casino in Reno. Reportedly, and I admit I never saw it, but somehow a story got to the Reno newspaper in a column about the "youngest" boxman in Nevada, and some told me it got picked up by a Vegas paper. I repeat, I never saw it, but many said they did.

Anyway, that is how I ended up with the Imperial, and I may have just seen it, 50 plus years later, on TV, at a car show in Ohio. Could be. I found this picture on the internet, just like mine.

SAD, but perhaps, just the beginning .....

HOBART, Ind

At the end of the 81-year marriage, the Isaksons said goodbye by turning off the lights. The partnership was over.

The Chrysler sign went dark.

It was an unceremonious finale to a four-generation bond between one family and one company, but it was not a surprise. Rob Isakson had known for weeks his dealership was on a Chrysler hit list — the cuts were part of the troubled automaker's survival strategy.

Still, when the moment arrived, he did not go gently into the night.

"It hurts," he says. "How do you put into words 81 years of your family's blood, sweat and tears? How many times did my father miss some family event ... because the business came first? And all of it is for nothing now."

It has been a wrenching few weeks, beginning with Chrysler's notification in mid-May that the family was losing its franchise. The word came in a form letter. "How insensitive is that?" Isakson asks.

Then came futile efforts — through calls and e-mails — to find why they were being dropped, even though they say their sales were better than some dealers that survived.

Last week, a judge ruled for Chrysler: The bankrupt company, having sold most of its assets to Fiat SpA, the Italian automaker, could trim about a quarter of its dealer franchises.

Isakson Motor Sales was among the dealers to go. And thus ended a proud family history.

Their ties to Chrysler go back to 1928 when two Isakson brothers who were farmers invested $5,000 in an exciting new venture: the DeSoto. They opened a showroom, in the heart of what once was booming steel country, at an auspicious-sounding intersection — Front and Center.

Over nine decades, the names of the cars changed (Imperial, Valiant, Cordoba, Horizon, Duster, Reliant, New Yorker, Road Runner, Challenger, Voyager, PT Cruiser), but the name of the dealership did not. It was the Isaksons. Clarence and Walter. Bill. Rob. Eric and Steve.

Father to son, father to son, selling cars and handing over the keys to one, two, even three generations of customers, making a go of it even in the leanest years.

"How many businesses survive their first five years, or the next five?" Rob Isakson asks, huddled in his office with his 83-year-old father, Bill, and his two sons. "We survived 81 years of ups and downs in this industry. The stock market of '29 and the Depression ... World War II and rationing, the strike years with the steel mills and we survived, the loan guarantee years, which were tough years ... and we survived that, too."

"And now," he pauses, "we're surviving but Chrysler says we're not worth keeping."

"Am I angry?" he asks, then quickly answers. "You're darn right I am."