Judson Foster Byers

One of the things that I remember most strongly about Grandpa Byers was the old Buick that he drove in the later years of his life. I thought it was the neatest old thing with dark wood paneling on the dashboard, a steering wheel the full width of Grandpa's torso (which was considerable, seeing as Grandpa was a very tall and broad-shouldered man), and a smell that was so distinctively Grandpa. I remember he'd put on his cap anytime that we'd go for a drive around Provo in that thing and sometimes I'd get to sit in the front between him and Grandma as we shuttled downtown to go to Chuck-a-rama or Golden Corral for dinner before heading home. Grandpa was almost too tall for the car, as I recall, and had a rough time in and out of it because of his size. The memory of that car (especially of the smell) remained with me so strongly that when my wife and I purchased our first car (a Buick), I sat down in the driver's seat and immediately thought of Grandpa Byers. It must be a Buick thing, but that car still smells exactly like the one that he drove, and I remember him every time I smell it now.