Every year our family goes to Urquhart’s Tree Farm in Chelsea, Michigan which is about a 10 minute drive from our home in Dexter. November and December are typical snowy months in Michigan but if they haven’t salted the roads, we take a Porsche. This year we drove the 1987 Porsche 928S4. It was the only car parked in a sea of SUVs and minivans. To be fair there was one Subaru and a Taurus.
Getting an 11′ foot tree is a three-step process. First, drag a hand cart with 120 pounds of kids squirreling on it to a field. Tell them to get off and push when you start going up a grassy hill. Cut tree and wrestle onto cart. Next, cart it back to the net-wrapping station to get it ready to load on the car while you go inside for hot chocolate. Finally pull your car up and prepare for the peanut gallery.
Since I’m “that guy” I expect a bit of ribbing as I pull up a seemingly expensive yet classic Porsche to load a prickly pine tree on top. But one loader guy seemed pissed while the other was high fiving me. I focused in on the guy who looked mad. “What? You don’t like European cars? Porsche isn’t your favorite marque? I asked with a big smile. “Well, no. But you’re just going to ruin it.” he replied. “I brought a blanket. Would it help if I told you how much I paid for the car?” “$1500?” the smiling guy chimed in.
No but close, $2500. Everyone is always surprised at the low price of entry but the key isn’t the purchase price. The key is how much you dump into it to get it running. That totals over four grand not including my labor, blood and sweat. It still needs more but I’m happy to be driving it regularly after it sat for so long. The guy who was judging me turned a corner and now seemed interested and supportive of my use and family venture. “Did you buy this in Chelsea?” he asked. “Yes!” to my surprise I said. “Yeah, I remember seeing it sitting at the bottom of a driveway.” So from the bottom of the driveway and bottom of my heart Merry Christmas!
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