High-five to Rems Auto

Rems Auto is five minutes from home. It was recommended by retired Mailman Bob Handline, Heinline, take your pick. He stars in several of my blog posts. 

Pitiful that I can't remember how to spell his last name, me, the spelling champ of Mercer Elementary School, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, when we were 'rich' and didn't know it.

Harry Rems, 82 - German last name - certainly made a good living for himself and his family through his company. Gee, if only I worked for Patch.com, I'd write an article about him. Basically, everyone is interesting, if they're willing to talk.

I asked him where he lives.

Huntingdon Road, he said.

You mean that beautiful street?

Yes, up near Terwood, he said.

I watched for it - it's one of my main thoroughfares - looking in the driveway for a bunch of trucks, which he has. His wife already gave up driving.

He doesn't work as a car mechanic anymore, He ferries people home seven or eight times a day while their cars are getting worked on.

He drove me home through a maze of back roads I didn't know about.

Neighborhood's changing, he said, as we zipped up New Street. (I'd looked at an old house there years ago.)

How so? I asked.

Kids, he said.

Yup, I said. You're right. My neighborhood's full of kids.

Patrick, Ian, Arabella, Tucker, Lucas, Micah, Eli, to name a few.


We're also hosting in the neighborhood more praying mantis. When I was clipping my holly tree, I came upon this mantis case.

Harry drove me home in his red Ford truck. Wanted to go home for the sole purpose of taking his photo. He wore a shirt with Pegasus the flying horse on it, possibly from when he owned a Mobile gas station, but don't quote me, I wasn't taking notes.

Whenever I got in or outa the truck, Harry said, Watch your step. Another one of his trucks has an even higher step. I love trucks and hope my neighbors were watching me, thinking I might buy a truck. 

I actually don't see the Flying Horse on his shirt, only Red Pens.

Rems Auto sponsors some race cars that run in New Jersey, as well as PA. There's a 15-yo kid who comes from a racing family. Harry took the photos out of his inside shirt pocket and showed them to me. Funny-looking cars. Boxy, but built for speed.

They grow tomatoes and cukes and zukes off to the side. They're really taking off.

Like at Terwood Auto, I said.

Yes, said Harry, he just sent a car up there and was talking to Mr Terwood Auto about the crops.

Bruce Rems took c/o my car. About $82. I keep all my car receipts in a folder called "Lab Tests" - I mean "Car."

Snacks are plentiful in the office. There's a pretzel jar next to Bruce. Barbara was eating tiny pretzels and dipping em in mustard. In the garage, there were some Lay's potato chips and someone reached in and took out a few.

What's the motto here? Support your local junk foods.

Speaking of delicious gluten-free brownies I had yesterday, I had taken two bites out of Sara McNarbor's homemade brownies, wrapped the rest in a napkin, and refused to eat anymore. Diabetes and fatness being the culprits.

And don't argue with me. I now have the belly of a two-month pregnant woman riding low with a boy-child.

Could not throw it away, so drove it to Mom's house where she and Ellen loved it. Ellen's a gluten-free love child of my parent's old age - don't believe anything I say - so she may bake a batch or take a bath, whichever comes first.

This I found very interesting. I was sitting on a stone wall in the shade, reading

the superb A Death in the Family by James Agee

when these two supply trucks drove up.

The man in the scrub-colored green top actually unpacked the wrong equipment. I heard Barbara calling the company to tell them so.

 I LOVE looking at people's offices, so I've blown this up for us.

Barbara is very efficient even though she knows nothing about cars. She urged me to take one of the Car Calendars I was leafing through - old, classic cars - but I declined, telling her I'd have no place to put it.

She said that one of the Rems' boys enters his cars in shows.

Man, the wind was a huffing and a puffing and I was afeared it would knock one of my trees down. Instead, the leaves were swirling all over.

What a noise! Exciting! Adrenaline going.