fbekholden.com

Hi folk,
after some 16 years - I thought it about time to put up a thread of my own detailing the mechanical love of my life...

The vehicle was bought by my late sister's father-in-law on 7th August, 1961 from Bill Patterson Motors in Ringwood, Victoria.
He drove it home off the showroom floor to 29 James Street, Ringwood where he lived.
A Scotsman, and master of the Masonic Lodge of Ringwood at the time, there was no choice when it came to the colour of the vehicle... Tartan Turquoise.... with a Snowcrest White roof.... the old chap must have been beside himself when he saw this model come out in those colours.
The Turquoise is an almost identical colour to that of a freemason's apron... the Snowcrest white also very close... this may have even swayed him in choosing to purchase the vehicle..

When he arrived home, a widower with one unmarried son still living with him - the son grabbed a camera and took two b/w pix of the car.. one with the old chap sitting in the driver's seat with his traditional "rollie" in a cigarette holder. He was a big man, very polite and well spoken. He worked as an engineer for the Ringwood council and drove an International utility truck... the EK rarely escaped out of the little wooden garage it lived in, save for visits to our place of a weekend on occasion...

Here are the two pix my sister gave me... I treasure the both immensely..
We can see in the above pic, that the only visible accessory on the car was the radio aerial... he was a very frugal man and would not waste money on anything for himself... he forced his three sons to work hard for whatever money or items they wanted, but spoiled his grandchildren without limit.

The family were always lost to find him gifts for birthday and Christmas - he would not have any of it that they should waste their money on him, having done so to educate them in the values of life himself... but, he would accept adornations for the EK.. and we see in ongoing pix that little accessories have been added over time.. all genuine Nasco items.... bonnet bird, mudflaps, scratch plates, sun visor (although, this was a "Lowline" mesh visor)...

Second pic follows that above - the old chap sitting proudly in the driver's seat.... I can almost hear his heavy brogue Scottish tongue as I look at him... wonderful man, always keen to listen to whatever I wanted to talk to him about... I loved that car, every time it was parked in our bush driveway..... I'd spend ages looking at it from our lounge whilst he was with us... I never ever dreamed that one day, I'd own it...

Pic...

Ok, that should kick off what is going to develop into a huge almanac of pix and stories... hope I'm not going to bore the daylights out of followers...

frats,
Rosco

Ok, little bit more history...
I lived on a 3 1/2 acre property that my parents bought in 1935... (getting to it, just wait - there is reason for this).
In 1962, bush fires (current relevance) threatened our little fibro cement home that my father built and both my sister and I were collected by the man above to stay with him in James St, Ringwood...

My father took this pic after the fires went through - my mother and father saved our home using only a garden hose.. water pressure had dropped to almost nothing because the MFB had tapped into the mains...

Pic...
Now, this is the relevance.... he came to collect us in his EK... it was just over 12 months old at this time... I was just 7 years old. We were very carefully invited to climb up and onto the back seat of the car.. I sat on the right, my sister on the left... to this day, I can still remember the smell of the vehicle.. all the vinyl was new... the car had hardly ever been used.. and I doubt that many would have sat on the rear seat before me...
I remember watching the old chap drive the car.. everything he did was "exacting"... gear changes were precise and slow... as if the gearbox did not have synchro-mesh..

I remember the car making the very steep climb up out of the valley we lived in.. our old Vanguard would grind and grind away up that hill... this car literally flew up it in second gear (I remember the gear lever being uppermost)... it was a great car and I enjoyed the 10 minute trip to Ringwood in it. My parents came to collect us a day later after the fires had been extinguished... I missed out on my second ride in the car.. and didn't get inside it again for another 10 years.... (you'll see relevance to this in a further post)

Ok, that's enough for today... stay tuned, there is a life-time of posts coming on this amazing car... we will next get to the start of my 48 year association in owning it... how it came to me, and how I drove it for the first time.

frats,
Rosco

Glad you finally got around to it. I searched in vain when I joined the forum about four years ago. Tell us more mate.

Sent from my SM-A705YN using Tapatalk

seems familiar

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3464

Ok - just adding a pic of the old fella to demonstrate how to post pix...
This was taken in September of 1965.... at his second son's wedding.
This son, was the person from whom I bought the dear old car from... story coming later..

Here's the picture of Alexander Rothnie.
Later that year, he sailed "home" to Scotland for the last time in his life... aboard "Fairstar".
As it turns out, my wife - at age 7 sailed on the return journey from England on this ship... unbeknown to me, I would meet her some 22 years later and we would marry and raise three children...

Told you this was going to be a "long" thread... but, lots of pix to "lubricate" the harshness of my incessant dribble....

frats,
Rosco

gpi wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 2:48 pm seems familiar

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3464

Oops - couldn't for the life of me remember having done this.... "oldtimer's disease" creeping in - my plead of innocence and for mercy.

Ok, does the membership want me to continue with this and delete the previous - or delete this and pick up from the previous...?
Voting starting now.... closes Friday... you have "control" folk... knock yourselves out, comments taken in jest if appropriate...

frats,
Rosco

Keep it going Rosco Good excuse to stop and take a coffee break.
Thank you for sharing
L&R

Hi Rosco,

I think because of the pictures you should keep this one and start again.

These type of stories are great and I'm sure this thread will have many eyes run over it.

In some ways I am disappointed in myself as my car was my grandfathers and because I was living life I never did obtain any documents or info of where the car originated from.

Look forward to some reading.

Regards Greg

Thanks R&L and Greg... I won't keep them both going, and if I continue on this one, I'm going to repeat a lot...
Hope y'all don't mind.. might add more little bits that were missing in the first "edition"... this can be the "late news"...

frats,
Rosco

I vote you continue with this one Rosco. Thought that photo of the old fella from the passenger side looked familiar.

More pics!


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

I would leave them both going , that's what is good about the forum rather than bookface, you can go back years after something was posted and find it - bookface you are lucky to find something from a week ago .......

rosco wrote:

1961 Rothnie-1 mail.jpg

Hey Rosco, this photo reminds me of the cops in Matlock Police, Homicide or Division 4 - Gerard Kennedy maybe?

I’m with Blacky, maybe keep this thread going and leave a link to the original in case there’s stuff there that you miss in this one. Put a link on the original to this thread and no need to add to it anymore - if that makes sense

Cheers, John


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks John, the link is already in this one - that's how I learned that I had two running.
Nah - Oldnek (John from Ulladulla) hit the nail on the head with Mr Rothnie... Humphrey B... in the driver's seat pic anyway... lovely man, gone too soon at age 70.

I believe general consensus is that I continue with this one... and I like your suggestion just to leave the other one sit dormant.
Being able to post pix direct from my files has afforded us continuance in being able to access them.... I note that all of my previous pix are now either not available, or have been fogged out by the host provider... grrrrr

I read through Neil's complete build for the first time just now... and reiterate that posting direct from personal files would have given me access to most previous to 2015 pix that are simply now not available... pity, I would loved to have seen them...

frats,
Rosco

It is a shame Rosco that I didn't know about the attachment tab at the bottom at the time and a lot of my photos have now gone I did ask if there was a way to replace them but didn't hear anything back.
I only post pics this way now even from my Ipad when at home and haven't really had failure.

Neil

Likewise, GOLA - will never use a host party for pix again...
Fortunately, none of mine were taken using a phone.. and whatever I posted in the other thread will come back to life as I go through this new thread.... I have all the pix and those that I have already scanned from slides and prints... plus all the ones taken using digital media...
It will be a very long thread this time.. more pix than ever, now that I can simply emplace them from files in my own storage...

frats,
Rosco