Sunday's Atlanta paper had an interesting article titled "Dwindling
junkyards can still fill auto restorers' needs for car parts." It
included lots of picturesque prose about "row upon row of abandoned
twisted metal ... awaiting death or renewal, enduring the scorching
sunshine and the pouring rain."
The photo carried an Associated Press tag, so perhaps others saw
it around the nation.
Of interest to this group (especially T.J. or others in Alabama?)
might be the following (copied here without permission from the
Atlanta Journal/Constitution):
One of the best of the remaining junkyards in Alabama
is in Piedmont, a small town in the north-eastern part
of the state. There, miles away from any large population
base, is Merrill Cars and Parts, a mecca for people
rebuilding foreign cars.
The 25-acre yard of cars is something of a post-war
museum, though many of the cars ar too warped and twisted
and burned out to be of much use. Triumph TR6s, MG Midgets
and MGBs are parked in rows. A few appear restorable. Some
will sit there until they erode into the soil.
Claude Merrill, the 74-year-old owner of the enterprise,
has been in business since the end of World War II.
Merrill does little advertising. But he gets calls every
day from people who have heard his junkyard may be their
best bet for an elusive part.
"It's all up here," he said, tapping his skull. "When
that quits working, that's when I quit working. I'm too
old to get modern. I've had more interesting things than
anybody around, and I guess I've still got some."
Sounds like a nice place doesn't it? The photo of Claude shows
a pleasant looking chap with snap-down driving cap, surrounded
by the usual clutter of a junkyard office.
Anyone know of or visited with Claude?
Joe Flake
flake@d311510.atl.hp.com
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