My "sort of" 1972 Mongrel has been a good car. Built with school-of-hard-knocks learning spanning 50 years. Where does anyone get that bug to drive an MG. After all, the classic MGB roadster is VERY different not just from the cars of today but the American cars of yesterday!

I was a 12 year old kid driving with my folks from north Jersey to Louisville KY in my dad's 1959 sky blue Plymouth wagon. Push button transmission on the left side of the steering wheel and wings along the top of the back fenders. The only 4 lane highway was the Pennsylvania TP. It took over 24 hrs to get to my Aunt (dad's sister) and Uncle in St Matthews. KY. Uncle Arthur was a doctor - had a few sheckles to throw around. He belonged to the Louisville Boat Club, had a 54' Sunliner flat bottom house boat called the SkipLeeJo and a 3rd floor box seat at the Derby. Rich stuff!! My younger brother and I would swim at the boat club's pool and sign tickets for our Coke's. Wow, royalty! We are not in New Jersey Toto!

My older cousin (Art Jr.) was nick named "Skipper". Skip had just graduated from Trinity College in New Haven, CT and his dad got him a pretty nice graduation gift. A 1966 Austin Healey 3000. Up to this point I had never seen a car like this. Just the cabs and buses of NYC and in the burbs big Detroit iron. Everyone in Louisville was a rum/coke drinker but the coke workers were on strike so Skip asked me if I wanted to go to the Coke distribution center to get some. SURE!

I sat in a space (that moved) that I had never been before in my life.....and I reveled in it! Color was BRG, top down, walnut dash and a stick shift??? Was the heck was that?? At 12 I knew my calling. We returned home from this family vacation and I immediately began searching for the British Leyland ads in dad's New York Times. Yes, British Leyland was around then. I would cut out ads of Triumphs, MGs and Healeys and tape them to the wall next to my bed. I did that for years!

In high school I had a lawn business which grew to 18 lawns a week and made me and my brother a good amount of $ for our ages. Got my license (my holy grail) at 16 and started looking for "wheels". One afternoon while on the school bus going to a track meet we were tooling along Rt 7 in Ridgefield, CT and at a Shell station I saw it. A 1967 (1 year old) yellow MGB with a for sale sign on it. At home I told my dad all about it (he already knew about my life's calling in spades) and he agreed to take a look. We had the car checked out and he agreed to support me buying it. 9000 miles on it at $1800. Dad helped some which I paid back. At 16 I had entered a phase of my life I would never retreat from.

My dad had a best friend (Uncle Lee) who was an engineer and taught me the mechanical rudiments of keeping that "B" on the road. I drove it for 4 yrs. of HS and then back and forth from CT to IN for 4 yrs. of college. One thing I was NOT prepared for was CT snow, salted roads and British car rust. Out of college I started to replace metal and found the frame rotted. I still remember the day I had to have the shell towed away. IT WAS SAD!

I worked and my business car was a '73 BGT. Maroon with a white/navy interior. The car I have today most club members know - the Mongrel which started out a '72 B Mk III but is a variety due to stealing components from 2 other cars (there is even a little of my "67 in it). The last 50 years has been a great ride indeed!

Today Susan, the Mongrel and me are doing just fine.

~~ Ralph Arata