San Rafael couple 'bitten by the classic car bug' - SFGate
Judy Sommese is a retired schoolteacher, and Joe Sommese is a retired elevator mechanic. They spend almost half the year in San Diego where their son lives, and the other half in San Rafael, where Joe works in his vegetable garden and Judy works on The Chronicle’s crossword puzzles. One night we went into Reno to have dinner, and we happened upon the Hot August Nights classic car event. It was a cruise night, and my husband and I were mesmerized by the parade of beautiful cars driving by. We had been bitten by the classic car bug. The following year, we went to the event and bought a 1968 Chevy Malibu convertible with a 327 small block engine at the swap meet. It was the last day of the event, so we got a good price even though a few things needed fixing. My husband did most of the work, and the car was good to go. We don’t really know much about the car’s history, except for what the previous owner said, “I did some work on this car, and when I was finished I decided to paint it a 'fun’ color. However, when parading the car at shows, I kept hearing things like, “Oh, it’s Barbie’s car,” or “It’s the Pepto-Bismol car. ” I decided the car needed a little more muscle, so I had a friend paint raspberry colored flames down the sides. My husband and I had originally intended to find a car we both liked and then sell the Malibu. Source: www.sfgate.com
