Mesquite, Texas — For Earl Guynes and his son, Jared, cars have always been their love language, bonding over Bondo and brake pads since Jared was young.
And through the years, the one thing they’ve talked about most is the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro that Earl used to own.
“Anytime that we saw a Camaro, he would definitely bring it up,” Jared said. “It’d be a reoccurring theme in a reoccurring story…The joke was, or the way that he just summed it all up, was that I had to sell this car for your diaper money.”
Actually, Earl was only half-joking.
“You got to build a nursery, find a crib and a cradle, and it was time to settle down and raise the family,” Earl said.
So in 1983, it was goodbye hot rod, hello lukewarm minivan.
Since then, his car dreams have been mostly confined to helping others with their vehicles. He works at O’Reilly Auto Parts in Mesquite, Texas, where he has continued to share that story of the Camaro that got away.