The old Packard dealership in Auburn Indiana isn’t around anymore, but the building that housed it is, and It’s being put to good use. Dick Foster is using it to store his extensive collection of, well, just about everything.
“This is a 1950 Ford Crestliner, it's a rare car,” Dick says as he pops the hood of a beautifully restored classic Ford. Dick has several classic cars stashed among the thousands of items he’s collected over the year’s…soda machines, old gas pumps, posters, records, a complete 1950’s era soda fountain. In fact walking through Dick’s stuff is like zipping back forty or fifty years in time. The cars are the biggest items, including gorgeous 1950 Mercury that Dick restored himself; he’s a retired auto body man who had his own body shop in Garrett for years. Dick says the cars fill a need he first felt back in high school.
“Went to high school, boys had Oldsmobile's and Fords,” he says, looking down at the floor. “I had a girls bicycle.”
Dick even has a 1937 tow truck used for years by Auburn’s Holben Chrysler dealership. He remembers it as a kid racing down the road to answer wrecker calls. A lot of Dick’s collection is Auburn stuff. He has a huge assortment of thermometers from Auburn businesses going back sixty years or more.
Is there one thing Dick doesn’t have that he’d love to find? “I’d like to have a '37 Ford coupe. I think they’re real nice”
Dick had a sale awhile back and a lot of stuff went. He says more sales are ahead but until then, he’ll rummage through his collection, putter with his cars, and enjoy himself.