John, a split window was my year-younger cousin's dream as well. In 1965, when he graduated from junior college and before he went to the Naval Academy, he ordered a brand new Mustang. He had saved up $3,500 from his job at a deli and asked his father to pay for the car when it arrived. Ford had some kind of strike going on and his father went to the dealer to discuss the problem. While at the dealer, he asked about the red Chevy. The red Chevy was a '63 Split Window Coupe owned by a doctor in town. My uncle offered the dealer $3,300 for the car and drove it home. When my cousin came home on leave his father said he couldn't get the Mustang but he hoped the red Chevy would be OK. A trip to the garage led to a lot of screaming and laughing with my cousin running to his room to take down the poster over his bed -- A red SWC.

He gave it to his son in 1995 but it sat outside and deteriorated. My cousin took it back and had it restored, resulting in an even bigger smile in 2005 (restored to the way it was when he lived in San Diego in the '70s).

My cousin returned the car to his son in 2017, when his dementia began became too serious to ignore. He passed away in January 2022 at 76.