{"id":83743,"date":"2024-12-23T13:27:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T18:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=83743"},"modified":"2024-12-06T14:39:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T19:39:52","slug":"daughters-1970-high-school-graduation-present-was-a-new-dodge-charger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2024\/12\/daughters-1970-high-school-graduation-present-was-a-new-dodge-charger.html","title":{"rendered":"Daughter’s 1970 High School Graduation Present Was a New Dodge Charger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s part of the cycle of life and if we\u2019re fortunate to enjoy and savor these times, we\u2019ve accomplished a great deal while on this planet. Many of us in the vintage car hobby, we\u2019ve owned a few and sold a few. Seller\u2019s remorse is more common than buyer\u2019s remorse when it comes to classic muscle machines and for those who\u2019ve hung on to their prized car that transported them through the decades of good times and bad, they are truly the winners. Margaret Gasperi Kloecker of St. Louis, Missouri, has hung on to her high school graduation present for over 50 years. Rather than a ring or necklace, her parents bought her a brand-new Plum Crazy 1970 Dodge Charger powered by a 383 Magnum V8 and we got to meet her and check out her Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> vehicle during the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN)<\/a> show last November.<\/p>\n\n\n

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While many of us would give our firstborn for such a gift, Margaret\u2019s hard work and passion for cool cars began well before her teenage years. \u201cMy passion for Mopars began as a child.\u00a0My father was a mechanic and a Mac Tool Salesman.\u00a0He was a Mopar guy.\u00a0The only cars I remember were Mopars, with the largest engine available. I would help my father work on friends’ and family members’ cars.\u00a0Then we got to go for the ‘fast’ test drive.\u00a0I learned to love speed from a young age.\u00a0I grew up around cars, tools and mechanics.\u00a0That was my ‘normal.’\u00a0My father accepted a Cornwell Tool Distributorship in 1973.\u00a0I went to work for the Tool Company in 1974 and began selling automotive tools and equipment.\u00a0I enjoyed working for the Tool Company,\u201d said Margaret.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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When it came time to reward Margaret with a graduation gift, something special was in the works. \u201cThe Charger was a high school graduation present from my parents, John and Marcella Gasperi.\u00a0I knew I was getting the Charger, and I begged my father for the HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> V8 engine, but my begging did not work! My parents ordered my Charger at Coronet Dodge of Kirkwood, Missouri, and it was built at the Chrysler plant in Fenton, Missouri. I always felt that the Chrysler Plant was really cool. My brand-new Charger arrived at the dealer in April of 1970. Despite not having a 426 HEMI under the hood, the 383 Magnum it was ordered with had enough performance to keep me happy,\u201d grinned Margaret. \u201cOne of my first memories was when I knew the Charger had been ordered but did not know it had arrived at my parent’s home. I was sitting in the living room and my mother went to the garage to get something. She opened the door between house and\u00a0garage, flipped on the lights and all I saw was a flash of purple,\u201d smiled Margaret as she remembered the first time she laid eyes on the Plum Crazy machine. \u201cThat fun day began in April, and I began cruising around my town and rolling through the parking lots of the Steak \u2018N Shakes where the high school kids hung out. They\u2019d do a double take on a girl driving an awesome muscle car with high-impact purple paint.\u201d But it wasn\u2019t all about looking cool for young Margaret among her peers. \u201cI delivered tools in the Charger for my dad\u2019s business and drove to my ballet classes, rehearsals and performances, along the way we made sure to save every piece of paperwork on the Charger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the Charger being Margaret\u2019s daily driver for almost 10 years, she kept up with regular maintenance, and being garage-kept its whole life has kept it in great shape. Margaret resisted the temptation of heavily modifying the Charger over the decades and had to replace the finicky single four-barrel Holley carburetor with a Carter unit (ironically, it was also manufactured in St. Louis). The Charger has provided many trouble-free miles for Margaret for this heavily optioned car that includes a 727 automatic transmission, Sure Grip Differential, Sport Style Steering wheel, A\/C, Power Windows, Rear Window Defroster, Vinyl Top, Six-Way Adjustable Driver\u2019s Seat, Road Wheels and Whitewall Tires, and many other cool features.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve always loved the car, it\u2019s fun, flashy and would get up and go.\u00a0I loved the lines of the Charger and even back then, I felt the car would end up being a classic. Now, I\u2019m having fun at car shows, telling my story about the fabulous gift my parents gave me. Keeping my parent’s memory alive with the Plum Crazy Charger,\u201d commented Margaret. Despite not having a \u2018back-in-the-day\u2019 pictures of her Charger due to a flood that ravaged her home many years ago, she\u2019s hung on to a pair of rare and cool Dodge Scat Pack jackets she sent away for back in 1970 to the Dodge Scat Pack Merchandise Headquarters in Detroit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, thank you to John and Marcella Gasperi for purchasing this beautiful graduation present for your daughter. And thank you to Margaret for keeping this Charger all these decades and her husband of 23 years, John Kloecker, for maintaining this rare example of Detroit muscle to inspired future generations what good grades in high school can get you!<\/p>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s part of the cycle of life and if we\u2019re fortunate to enjoy and savor these times, we\u2019ve accomplished a great deal while on this planet. Many of us in the vintage car hobby, we\u2019ve owned a few and sold a few. Seller\u2019s remorse is more common than buyer\u2019s remorse when it comes to classic muscle machines and for those who\u2019ve hung on to their prized car that transported them through the decades of good times and bad, they are truly the winners. Margaret Gasperi Kloecker of St. Louis, Missouri, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":83746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[519,2948],"class_list":["post-83743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-charger","tag-dodge-classics"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Graduation_Feautre.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Graduation_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83743"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83770,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83743\/revisions\/83770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}