Chapter 3 | RagDoll70

Chapter 3

MORE THAN JUST METAL

As the warm days of 1971 came to a close, and Gary having spent the past two summers terrorizing the streets of Hamtramck... there were also downsides to the endless amount of fun. First, he had been getting into a lot of trouble. Plenty of tickets and even more warnings began to weigh in on his driving habits. Also, with all of his street racing and what he liked to call "Neutral Shots," he actually broke the transmission in the Roadrunner a couple times. The dealership told him that they knew he was racing the car a lot, and warned him that they would not warranty another transmission. Additionally, Gary had recently gotten engaged to Pat and felt that it may be time to start thinking about settling down. So, the Roadrunner had to go. He traded her in to Krajenke Buick for a 1971 Buick GS Convertible. Nowhere near the Street Terror he dropped off. But it served the purpose that he "thought" he wanted.

A short time later, Gary and Pat broke up. And he had immediately regretted selling the Roadrunner. Gary eventually married (the girl across the street) Cindy, and together they started a family. They had two sons, Bryan and Gary (or Gary Allen, as his mother called him, to distinguish between the two Gary's).

Through the rest of the 1970's and the 1980's, Mr. Kozlowski shared different bonds with his two sons. With his oldest son, Bryan, they shared a love for music and playing various musical instruments. Particularly those of Polish Folk Music nature. Bryan was quite the prodigy, learning to play the Button Accordion as young as 4 years old. He and Mr. Kozlowski would "jam" together quite often. Especially when Mr. Kozlowski's old racing buddies and cousins would come over.

With his youngest son, Gary, however, Mr. Kozlowski had a connection through cars. From Gary's earliest memories of childhood, he was captivated by the street racing stories from his father and his uncles. Especially when the Roadrunner was brought up. There would be countless discussions between Mr. Kozlowski and his cousins/friends (Greg, Vic, Matt, and Ray), who were all GM fans. And then, just as now, that age-old debate on who made the better, fastest, and coolest cars. The arguments would go back and forth like a tennis match. That is, until Mr. Kozlowski would bring up the Pink Roadrunner. At that moment, the tennis match was interrupted by an Atom Bomb being dropped onto his friend's side of the court! The Roadrunner took on a persona of being more than just a car. It was THE car. The car to beat. The car that wouldn't lose. The car that was larger than life. And that's what grabbed hold of young Gary.

That fascination would evolve over the years. From an exciting story, to a childhood idol, to a thicker-than-blood bond, and eventually into an obsession. Young Gary would take his mother's nail polish and paint some of his Hot Wheels cars to emulate the Roadrunner. Of course always being the unbeatable car on the Family-Room floor. As he grew older, he'd customize 1:64 scaled die casts more accurately than when he was 5, and build numerous 1:24 scale model cars of the Roadrunner. From childhood all the way into his teens, Gary and his dad would find themselves talking about old cars quite often. Mopars in particular. And always spent time discussing the Rag Doll and her street-racing stories.

These discussions grew increasingly important, as Mr. Kozlowski battled PTSD from his time in Vietnam. The war really affected him, and in later years, it tore his family apart. Mr. Kozlowski did not know how to cope with his PTSD. Nor did anyone. Back then, it wasn't diagnosed and was seldom treated or even respected. Trauma like that sent many former soldiers and veterans right into the bottle. Mr. Kozlowski was one of them. Over the years, his alcoholism got worse. And his family suffered the results. He was not a happy man when he was drunk. Mr. Kozlowski's relationship with his sons was tattered, at best. And his marriage was destroyed. The grip that Alcohol had on him derailed every aspect of his life, other than his job. He stayed sober at work and kept his job at Chrysler. But the job he did as a father to two young boys was not very good. Nor was the job he did as a husband. After 19 years of marriage, Cindy had enough and left him in Divorce. With the boys being young men by then, Mr. Kozlowski was on his own.

He had tried to get his life together and embrace life as a bachelor. But his demons continued to haunt him. Not long after the divorce, Bryan had moved to northern Michigan. Approximately 4 hours away. Gary and Mr. Kozlowski remained close and were even "across-the-hall" neighbors in the same apartment building for a while. Though they butted heads quite a bit, due to Mr. Kozlowski's battles with alcohol, there was always a bond that kept them connected. That bond was the Roadrunner. No matter how damaged their relationship would get, no matter how mad or upset Gary would get with his father, discussions of the Roadrunner seemed to extinguish those flames.

By the turn of the Century, Mr. Kozlowski had done a miraculous job repairing the damaged relationship with his youngest son. That's all he had, and he knew it. And all of that mending was made possible because of the Rag Doll. Mr. Kozlowski wished he could find her and bring her home. He spoke of the things he would have done if he kept her. Or how he would customize or modify her if he were to find her again. For Mr. Kozlowski, she was "the one that got away." And for Gary, she was like a long lost sibling. Separated at birth. Like a twin, forever in search of his brother/sister. And that was what kept the two Gary's connected.

Though he had mended one relationship with Gary, and yearned to mend the other with Bryan, Mr. Kozlowski was never able to break down the biggest wall. His demons kept a hold of him until they eventually defeated him in 2002, at the age of only 54 years old. His death crushed Gary. He felt that he and his father had gotten so far and it was taken from him again. At Mr. Kozlowski's funeral, Gary placed a custom made 1:64 diecast car that he had made to look exactly like the one thing that bonded him to his father. He placed that toy car in the left chest pocket of his father's suit coat. So that no matter what, Mr. Kozlowski would never be alone and would always have a reminder of the bond he shared with his son. A symbol of a car that represented so much more than just Steel and Iron.

That bond became a mission for Gary. An obsession. In the years following his father's death, Gary made it a quest to find his father's lost Roadrunner. Ever since he was a small child, Gary remembered always staring out the windows of his parent's car or the school bus, or any time he was out traveling. Constantly looking in backyards, fields, garages, barns, etc. Always looking for his dad's car. Gary had been searching for it his whole life. Now with his father gone, Gary would ramp up that search. With the arrival of the internet, many more doors would open over the next few years. The reach began to get larger. But with every passing year, the probability of finding that car grew smaller. Gary, however, never gave up hope. He knew she was out there, somewhere, waiting for him to find her.