{"id":3164,"date":"2014-02-18T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=3164"},"modified":"2014-02-18T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T14:58:09","slug":"eddie-and-the-white-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2014\/02\/eddie-and-the-white-smoke\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie and the White Smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"
We love our 1995 Toyota Corolla. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in fantastic shape and is our only car for driving out of Jerusalem. (Our other car is a Better Place electric vehicle which is now essentially a very expensive \u00e2\u20ac\u0153city car\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0another story<\/a>.) So, when a car repairperson rolled down the window in his vehicle and called over to my son while he was stopped at a red light near work and informed him that white smoke was coming out of the tailpipe, we were all understandably concerned.<\/p>\n The repairman in the next car handed over his card between the windows \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he specialized \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in just this sort of thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d of course be glad to take a look.<\/p>\n Not so fast. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just replaced the catalytic converter in the car a few weeks before that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it had failed its air pollution test; these things happen from time to time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so we decided that the best bet would be to take our car back to the shop where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d had the work done as it was still under warranty. That meant a visit with Eddie.<\/p>\n Eddie is not your typical car mechanic. Stylishly dressed with a button down shirt, longish hair and speaking close-to-perfect English, he comes across as something between a presentable version of Johnny Depp (one not in pirate costume) and a 50\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rock and roller. Which is fitting given that, in his free time, Eddie plays in a local Jerusalem band.<\/p>\n <\/a>He also has a fully restored beautifully bright red 1961 Plymouth Valiant in the back of his shop in Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Talpiot Industrial Zone. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was the first automatic car to be imported into the country,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told us with irrepressible pride. Does he drive it? He happily nods: to meet-ups of other vintage car owners. (These get togethers are held fairly regularly on Fridays in the parking lot of the Israel Museum. Who knew?)<\/p>\n