Down memory lane: Sharon couple recreating honeymoon in 1953 Mercury

By Patrick Cooley
Herald Staff Writer

SHARON September 14, 2009 12:45 am

— A fully-restored 1953 Mercury sat in the parking lot of the First United Methodist Church in Sharon on Sunday afternoon, waiting for a Sharon couple to take it on a trip re-tracing their honeymoon.
The car belongs to Al “Cub” and Peg Hines, who will be starting a road trip at the end of this month to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
On Sunday, friends and family held a surprise party for the Sharon couple at the same site where they were married.
“The church burned down,” Mrs. Hines said.
“But it’s the same church,” Mr. Hines said. “It’s the people that make the church.”
The Hines own several other restored cars, including a 1937 Packard, a 1935 Auburn, a 1926 Ford Model T, a 1954 Nash, and a 1947 DeSoto.
But the Mercury holds a special place in their hearts, as it is almost an exact duplicate of the first car they drove as a married couple.
“(A 1953 Mercury) was the last car I drove when I was single, and the first car I drove when I was married,” Mr. Hines said. “Even the paint job is the same.”
At the end of September the two will be leaving to take the exact trip they took 50 years ago for their honeymoon, in exactly the same vehicle.
“I think it’s really interesting that they’re doing this in a clone of the car they used to drive,” said Kirk Hines of Mercer, one of the couple’s grown children.
Their trip will take them to Skyline Drive in Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pa., the site of one of the most important battles of the Civil War.
Mrs. Hines said they left on a Sunday 50 years ago, but their trip didn’t last quite as long as they had planned.
“We ran out of money on Wednesday, and we had to come back,” she said with a laugh.
Mr. Hines bought the car a year and a half ago, and spent more than a year restoring it, buying many of the parts he needed off eBay.
When the Hines family learned about Cub and Peg’s planned trip, they decided to throw an anniversary party for them at First United Methodist.
Kent and Scott Hines, their children, collected wedding pictures, their honeymoon scrapbook, and even a flyer advertising the 1953 Mercury.
“This is really needed and deserved,” said Gary Bedell of Sharon, a family friend. “They’re wonderful people.”

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