For nearly 50 years, a 1959 Fiat 500 has perched on a pole above a stack of wheels on a car lot near Talent, Ore. There’s a story behind that car on a pole. It starts with Jim Walker, owner of the Jim’s Better Buys lot.
Walker grew up in his father’s wrecking yard in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon in the 1940s and 50s. Later, he started his own used-car lot, towing service, and wrecking yard south of Talent.
In 1966, Oregon had a law against selling a car to anyone under 21. When a young fellow fresh out of military service presented a driver’s license confirming he was 21, Walker sold him a car for $299.
Two weeks later the man’s mother came in and demanded the money back because her son was not 21. Walker’s attorney agreed with the mother, Walker gave her back the money, and used a tow truck to retrieve the car from a field the young man had gotten it stuck in.
Walker’s uncle suggested the pole to remind him to get a birth certificate before selling another car to someone under 21. And he did.
Source: Stiles, Greg. "A Long View of Home." Mail Tribune, 20 Apr. 2018 [Medford, OR], p. 1.
