LLISA SCHNITZLER learned
to drive in a ’69 Buick Skylark,
so that’s what she bought as her
first car when she was in high
school in New Jersey. When the
transmission failed while she was
in college, she found another
Skylark, a ’68 convertible she
purchased for $1,200. It wasn’t
a hardtop and it wasn’t the right
year, but she soon fell in love with
the car.
“I had this all through the
’80s,” says Schnitzler, an art
teacher at Williston Middle
School. “I drove it to the Jersey
Shore. That’s what we did in New
Jersey. You’d listen to Springsteen,
and you’d go to the Shore. I went
through everything with that car.
I could go off by myself in it,
listen to music. I just loved it. It
was very much a sanctuary, that
car.”
She still has it, keeping it
long enough for it to become an
antique.
“I would never get rid of it,”
she says. “I’m kind of weird
in that I become emotionally
attached to them. I’m not selling
this car.”
That doesn’t mean she won’t
add to her collection. She recently
bought a ’69 Corvette Stingray.
“I’m not a foreign car person,”
she says. “I am an American mus-cle
car girl. That’s it. I think this
is the era when we really kicked
it out of the park. I mean, look at
it. It’s amazing. It looks like you’re
driving a shark.”
That’s a common experience
among collectors. They love the
car or cars they have, but they
are always on the lookout for
something different. Dillow and
McEachern are selling Cheeks
and Skirts to make room for a
1954 MG TF, a beautiful car with
flowing lines.
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WBM december 2017