Actually, I'm an Iowa boy who now lives in Georgia
I'll try to be brief with this since it's your thread and not a counseling forum or anything. But I basically refuse to be the one who steps up to try to make amends in this situation. If they do, I am willing to listen, but I will not initiate. I am the one from our family who always tries to do everything for everyone in the family (and for friends too) and I have been taken advantage of for far too long. I'm there to help when help is needed, but when I need help with something more often than not everyone is too busy. For instance, my brother basically blew his truck up pulling a travel trailer to Arkansas or somewhere near there (don't remember exactly where he was going). So I offered my truck so that he could get to where he was going. When my truck returned a week later, it was damaged. He did not offer to help with repairs, but I made them anyways because it's my truck. This isn't the first time for this. When I need something like help replacing a roof on my house or a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, he is too busy. Or my mom who throws temper tantrums like a toddler when things don't go according to her plan. The last visit I had with her that's exactly how she acted. We only had a limited time to visit when making a trip from Georgia back to Iowa to pick up my II. She knew we were coming as I was in contact with her well in advance. We arrived at her house to find her not home. I tried calling her cell multiple times and left multiple messages. I didn't hear from her until the night before we were leaving to come back to Georgia, so I made arrangements that we would come to her house in the morning and leave from there. When we come in the house, she was literally pouting like a toddler in her rocking chair, complete with stuck out bottom lip and crossed arms. I tried to initiate conversation with her to only receive nods and uh-huhs or nu-uhs. I was starting to get impatient with her for her acting like this, but tried not to show it. She didn't acknowledge my fiance or her kids when we walked in the door, so my fiance was fed up and wanted to leave too. When we finally did leave, mom was a little more open with us, but she still failed to acknowledge my fiance. My fiance had tried to arrange for my mother's transportation the previous Christmas only to have my mother snub her plans and tell everyone that my fiance didn't want her to come because of her dog. My mom also tried to blame us on this trip, saying that we didn't try to call or see her. So my now wife has had it with my mother for a while. Now couple just this tidbit with everything that happened with my accident, and I've had it with my mother's attitude and will no longer tolerate it. When she steps forward to offer my wife and I an apology, then I may consider amends. But given everything that's gone on in, especially in the past year, I can no longer be a part of it and continue to be a healthy, grown adult. This is longer than I anticipated, but is still just a snippet of information, a small example of everything between my family and I. Them taking my 55 away was just the icing on the cake, or the last nail in the coffin, depending on how you want to look at it. Ok, rant over!
So, did you find anything worth while at the swap meet? And the blue will look good on the car! Here is a thought for you and your son to consider-have you thought of a neutral color interior like grey? Just thinking in the off chance you guys change your mind on the exterior color, the interior will match no matter what. Our 67 has a parchment interior and a purplish paint job now. I ran the door tag numbers and found that it was originally Clearwater Aqua and my wife wants to take it back to that color eventually. It also had a black interior, but being in Atlanta and not having AC in the car, we are going to leave the parchment interior alone. We wouldn't be able to do that if the interior would have been changed to a matching color of the paint. Like I said, just a thought for you to consider. I'm sure you already have!