Where my Jeep love all started...

[OldSch88L]

I was feeling nostalgic the other day, so I started going through my old box of photos; actual, physical, printed-on-cardboard photos. And I stumbled on photos that I completely forgot I had. As a kid I grew up in Granby's countryside, in the eastern townships, in Quebec, just a hair north of the Vermont border. Beautiful place to grow up, as you can see by our house's picture. One of my Aunts won something like 100000$ Canadian at the lotery in the early eighties. She and her husband started a construction company, bought a house, a boat and a brand spankin' new 1986 Jeep Cherokee V6 manual. Yes, a hundred grand could get you all those things in the eighties. Well, turns out they didn't quite like the XJ, and sold it to my uncle, who lived right across the street from us. My 1-year older cousin across the street was pretty much my best friend and brother that I never had, and we shared the same passions. After all, Granby is a huge car town, home to a well known annual classic car exposition with fellas from the US even joining in. Anyways, me and my cousin were into cars, spotting the neighborhood's Trans-Ams, Z/28s and IROCS and such, but always were fascinated by the Cherokee. To us it was the coolest truck. And my uncle really loved it, always garage-kept, only to be used on weekends or vacations, or to move the whole family. Funny fact, as well as owning this AMC-era XJ, he also daily-drove a Renault Alliance, another AMC-era relic that even had the AMC logo on the dash. That XJ always gave me fond feelings of my childhood, family and the countryside. And that's why I fell in love with the MJ the first time I saw one; I though it was the best of all the worlds! They last I heard about that XJ was around 2010, and my uncle still had it. I don't know as of now, since I live a couple of hours away and haven't really gone back to Granby since my Dad died in 2014. But if my uncle still has it, I'd sure like to buy it and do a full restoration, even if it was still mint the last time I saw it!!! Here are some snapshots of those good ol' times; sorry for the bad quality pics! This was the era of "point and pray" cameras after all!!!

[PCO6]

Nice pics.   I drove my first XJ through the Granby area in 1990 and it was a great winter drive.   We were on a ski trip of about 4 days in Stowe followed by another 4 days in Mont Tremblant where I think you are now.   It was a new 4 dr. Laredo also black and it was our first trip with it.   I too have boxes of old photos and I really need to search through them for pics of that Jeep.   The XJ was my daily transport then.   My hobby cars were MGs.   We took ski trips with a few of them too, Mont Tremblant being one of our favourite spots.   

 

[Bezerk1]

In the 70’s getting your first car started about a year and half before you turned 16. The driving age in Pa.at that time. A guy in town had lots of Jeeps and Willy’s. One day he put up a  69 cj I kept going back looking and dreaming of owning it. Kept looking in the JC Whitman catalogue thinking of what parts and accessories to buy for it. Then my older sister’s boyfriend said he’d take a look at it for me and said Dale you don’t have enough money or know how so it never came to be. Got my first car and it was a 73 challenger.  Still never gave up on Jeeps though.  Buddy had one and had a great time in it. Then when I needed a pickup there was a Jeep honcho blue with the big gold billboard for sale and loved that. Just didn’t like the price difference from a beat up old dodge truck which I bought instead. Then I was a dodge guy. Was thrilled that Chrysler bought them in the late 80’s . I would like to know how many older Jeeps I’d of had if I would have bought that first one. Now got 3 wranglers, 2 Cherokees and 2 mjs. Here are some pics of my first passion