COUGAR OF THE MONTH

Don Kelberlau

How did you become a fan of Mercury Cougars? 

Back in the day… my sister had a ’70 Cougar when I was in grade school.  I thought the body style was sporty and enjoyed its performance (from a passenger’s perspective).  As fate would have it, another Cougar was put up for sale in my home town just as I was entering high school.  Since my sisters Cougar was so reliable, my parents were in favor of getting a 1969 standard Cougar for me!  Being “of that age” I had a blast with that car and had a few envious friends because of it.  Understand this was not a show car.  I drove it year round, on country roads, gravel, mud, snow… well, you get the picture.  It had some rust, and even suffered through a Midwest hail storm that delivered tennis-ball-size hail.  That was a sad day.  My Cougar now had dimples!  Anyway, I drove that Cat for about 4 years through school and had to let it go when I joined the military right after high school.  I was going overseas, couldn’t take it with me.  Lots of great memories left behind.  So after 23 years and retiring from the Air Force, I had the idea of finding another Cougar, thinking it would be fun to have another Cat.  An opportunity presented itself and the rest is history.

Where did you get your Cat? 

Of course I did not find a Cougar in the local area!  When I was looking, I came across an “unmolested” 69 XR7 for sale in upstate New York.  Short story—the Cat from Brooklyn made its way to Denver!  I am the 4^th owner of this Cougar.