My Dauphine back in '68

My story is about my little red Dauphine back at Fort Knox, KY in 1968.  A friend of mine and I were driving to a fishing spot on the northern area of FK and it had rained heavily the previous day.  We had to cross a swollen stream which was very deep and about 30 feet wide. 

Well, undeterred, I slowly drove into the water and it was almost up to the window.  We were actually floating and bobbing to the other side.  We finally made it after a pretty hair-raising effort. 

My Dauphine had the electric clutch with automatic transmission.  Well, the next day I was driving to the store and the clutch quit working.  The engine was fine, but the wheels would not engage. 

My father towed me back to our house and we started to work on the car.  It was up on jack stands and we were underneath unbolting the clutch housing.  You can imagine the look on my dad's (somewhat angry face) when he pried the casing cover off and out poured a lot of water. 

My dad was nice about the whole thing, and actually, he thought it was sort of funny (many years later.)  The cost of the new clutch was about $250 back in '68.  He installed it himself.  Needless to say, I never forded streams after that. 

Stan Graff - stangraff@comcast.net