On Easter weekend of 1966 (or a year close to it), my father received a phone call from my Grandpop Salvo- Grandpop was working his shift at Granogue that weekend, and when it was time for him to head home, he was experiencing some car trouble.
My father drove up to the estate to see what was wrong with the car. At the time, my grandfather was driving a 1960 Corvair. My father pulled up to the car, and popped the trunk (Corvair engines are in the back) to see if he could diagnose the problem. Sure enough, while looking it over, he found the cause: the fan belt had managed to come loose from the cooling fan. In those cars, the fan belt is placed horizontally over top of the cooling fan, so it’s constantly fighting gravity. The slightest stretch of the belt or shift from the pulley, and it would come off.
As my father located the source of the problem, and began to work in the engine compartment of the car, he noticed under the car that another pair of feet appeared next to those of my grandfather’s. When he stood up to see who the newest spectator was, it was none other than Irenee DuPont Jr. himself. “Need some help?” he asked...
According to my father, Irenee had a 1949 Volkswagen that he maintained completely by himself. The DuPont’s of that era were no strangers to physical labor. It is for reasons like this example (among many others) that families like my Grandpop Salvo's had the greatest respect for the DuPont family.
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