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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I wanna again welcome you to The 4:05 Coffee Break. Guys, nice and cool out there. Is it not? Enjoy. Get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea, long sleeve shirt. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.35 a bushel. 550lb steer calf $5 to $5.15 a pound, dependent on quality for fall delivery. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billings, I'm afraid, isn't moving at all. $3.30 on the top end, but, guys, there's more much more.
OK Solberg:Okay then. The Dodson Fair is behind us. The Phillips County Fair in Dodson, Montana is in the past. I don't know about you, but I enjoyed it immensely, and I ain't just whistling Dixie. Yet after the fair is over, well, what happens?
OK Solberg:Monday comes, and here we are, and it's Jay and Joe's Motor Monday. With that in mind, just a side note here, make sure you tune in two months from now, and we'll have the great and grand 1st anniversary celebration of Jay and Joe's Motor Monday, but not today. Today, let's see what kinda trouble we can get into. Today isn't about one single car. It's about those little nuggets of automotive history that make you smile and say, you know, I never knew that.
OK Solberg:Did you know the original Ford Mustang wasn't expected to become a runaway success? No. It wasn't. Ford hoped at best to sell about a 100,000 in its 1st year. Instead, they sold over 400,000, and the millionth Mustang rolled off the assembly line less than 2 years after production began.
OK Solberg:What about that then? Now the Volkswagen Beetle became the 1st automobile to sell more than 21,000,000 copies using essentially the same basic design through the whole production. Not bad for a car once nicknamed the people's car. Here's a tidbit you can search out for yourself and search for a year and you probably won't find it. But but the Chevrolet Corvette has carried fiberglass body panels since the year 1953.
OK Solberg:While nearly every other automobile made was stamped from steel, America's sports car had a secret others didn't use till much, much later. Now this next one deserves a drum roll for sure. What do you think is the longest running automobile nameplate that is still in production today? Now think about that. If you're on Jeopardy, you have four seconds, five seconds.
OK Solberg:Anyone? Anyone? The longest running automobile nameplate that is still in production today. And the answer is the Chevrolet Suburban. It has worn the Suburban nameplate continuously since 1935.
OK Solberg:The average modern automobile contains less than 30,000 individual parts when every nut, bolt, and fastener is counted. 30,000 parts. Did you know the average automobile spends about 95% of its life parked? 95% of its life parked. Thousands of engineering hours, hundreds of moving parts, all waiting for someone to turn a key, and 95% of the time it sits there just ready for you.
OK Solberg:Now when Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913, the time required to assemble a Model T dropped from more than 12 hours per Model T dropped down to 90 minutes. It didn't simply change Ford, It changed manufacturing around the world. And now never forget this one. The little Jeep earned its legendary reputation during World War II.
OK Solberg:More than 640,000 military jeeps were built, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower later listed the jeep among the most important tools that helped the Allies win the war. Now the humble AMC Gremlin wasn't named after a mechanical problem. No. American Motors intentionally chose that playful name because everyone would remember it. And I don't know about you, but I think they were right.
OK Solberg:The Gremlin sneaking in there doing some sort of monkey business. Now consider this. Every collector car at your local cruise night right here in Malta, Montana was once just transportation.
OK Solberg:You know, guys, somebody spilled coffee in it, somebody scraped the grocery cart, somebody complained about its gas mileage, and then somebody traded it in because a newer newer model had caught their eye. But as the years go by, people grow up, garages filled with memories, and those memories cause people to remember their old car.
OK Solberg:And some of them refurbished it, and others even went out and purchased one just like it. And somehow, those ordinary automobiles became special and cherished. So whether it's a model T, a Jeep, a Buick GS with a 455 or maybe even just the pickup sitting in your driveway.
OK Solberg:Every machine has a story because every machine had a maker. And behind every talent to build, invent, and create stands the greatest creator of all.
OK Solberg:As Psalm 111:2 reminds us, Great are the works of the Lord studied by all who delight in them. Again, Psalm 111 verse 2.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.