They say every car has an identity and the Desoto Chrysler 1954 that was around Kimberley in the 60s certainly was "one of a kind". Dubbed "The Green Hornet" by Bernie Benjie Redisky, who was one of many owners, the car must have weighed over a ton - really. I remember Redisky banging out of a parking place in front of Aikmans restaurant pushing a car in front and one behind the Hornet. Like a tank, it was.

The ownership started normally enough with Sanny Calles who got it from his parents. Larry Musser (Muss) owned it in the summer of '68 then sold it to Bernie Redisky, who sold it to Johnny Jenkins, who could not afford the gas and pawned it off on Chuck Atkins for a pair of Kneissel skis.

Now Chuck was a bit of a rogue, whom I met when he was working for my dad building houses in Meadowbrook. After a summer of hard partying, Chuck (who was rooming with me at Mary Kozak's on Trail St) decided to head back to Montreal and not tell anyone.

I got a letter in the mail informing me the car was at the Cranbrook Airport with my dad's tools in the trunk. Since I was leaving for Spokane to go to school in the fall of 1969, I took the "Green Hornet" to Spokane, leaving my car at home.

One day, after hockey practice at the Spokane Colisseum, the transmission literally dropped on the pavement and that was all she wrote for the Green Hornet.

George Talotti, who was playing for the Spokane Jets at the time, was just parking next to me when the tranny went. I knew him from his Kimberley Dynamite days, and coffee at the Grill with Milo Fabro, Fred Holmes, Dickie Bova, Pat Oakley, Russ Lytle and my dad Tony.

George arranged for me to get a ride up to Kimberley with the Spokane Jets to get my own car. I sat beside Tom Hodges whom I really disliked as a player, but found him to be a really nice person off the ice. Charlie Goodwin and the coach Al Rollins sat in front of us, and we had some excellent hockey talk.

Anyway, I picked up my car in Kimberley. About 1 month later, someone from the Spokane Colisseum poked his head in our dressing room and said "Hey kid, do you own the green Chrysler with BC plates in the parking lot? It's about to get towed." Truthfully, I answered, "I own the orange Ford Fairlane with BC plates". Now this was in December of 1969. About 2 years ago (40 years after the fact). My friend Larry Musser and I were having lunch in Vancouver. He lamented to me that Spokane Police Dept. had called him about a towing bill. None of the owners, Redisky, Jenkins, Chuck Atkin, nor myself, had bothered registered the car. Musser was the last owner on the paperwork. So they hit him for the towing bill, which Muss, living in Canada, refused to pay. The cops then contacted ICBC who would not let Larry renew his car insurance, until the $80 towing bill in Spokane was paid. Talk about the long arm of the law! 40 years later, Larry had to cough up a cheque. Back then, in the 60s, things were pretty casual especially among friends in Kimberley BC.