Happy birthday, Gertrude

FALLBROOK — Bill Scopis and his wife Annabell lived in Seattle in the early ’70s and it was there that Gertrude found them.

Scopis overheard one of his staff mention that her husband was taking the old car to the wrecking yard that afternoon. He asked about it and found it was a 1959 Ford. He had one in ’59 so he asked for a look at it.

He was thinking that he could fix it up and use it as a go-for car in the business. A while later, the neighbor said her husband was out at the back, so Scopis went to look. Well, there it was: smoking, steaming, shaking and running on four (it’s a big eight)!...