By Jamie Ausk Crisafulli
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Robin Gall traveled 600 miles from Hanna, Alberta, Canada last week to enter his newly restored 1972 suburban in Saturday’s Cars in the Park show, but his participation in the show had less to do with winning a prize than it did about bringing the project full circle.
Gall purchased the suburban in Glendive in 2004 from then-resident Dorothy Shoemaker.
But the restoration story actual began in 2002, when Gall was in Glendive watching his son play baseball at Dawson Community College.
When Glendive resident Bruce Miller pulled into the baseball complex with his vintage blue suburban, Gall, who said he’d been looking for an old suburban to restore for some time, made an effort to visit with him.
During the conversation, Gall found out Miller had purchased his suburban locally and asked him if he knew of any others in the area.
To Gall’s surprise, Miller said he knew of another one very similiar to his that was for sale and gave Gall the lead.
Gall stopped at Kmart where Shoemaker was the shoe department manager at the time. Later that day, she showed him the suburban and said she would sell it for $6,000.
“Boy, it was just about everything I’d ever wanted in a suburban,” he said.
But the Canadian dollar was weak in 2002, at around .62 cents on the U.S. dollar, and that was just more money than Gall was willing to spend. Shoemaker and Gall parted ways, but agreed to keep in touch.
The suburban didn’t get far from Gall’s mind over the next years, however.
“In 2004, when the Canadian dollar came up quite a bit, $6,000 seemed more reasonable then,” he said.
He called Shoemaker and offered to buy the vehicle.
Purchasing a vehicle from the US to take to Canada doesn’t come without complications, he added, “She had to trust me, that I was honest, and sent me a copy of the title, and I sent her a thousand bucks or something,” just to get the process going.
Once arrangments were made, Robin and his son Brodie traveled to Glendive with a trailer to pick up the suburban.
“As we were driving away I could tell that we were really pulling some heartstrings. So I kind of decided at that point that I would phone her again when I got it finished,” Gall said.
After finishing up another project, Gall began his work on the suburban
The 1972 suburban ran well and Shoemaker’s late husband Dale had started all of the body work for restoration.
Gall restored it back to his original condition, “all but the wheels and a few little things.” He did everything but the paint work himself.
Gall made good on its promise and when he finished the restoration project in the summer of 2016, he attempted to call Shoemaker.
But Gall found out Shoemaker, who lived in Glendive for nearly 20 years, had moved to Billings in 2005. He didn’t give up, this time going to Google to find the information he was looking for.
Fortuntely, the first “Dorothy Shoemaker” he attempted to call was the right one. She, who said she often thought about Gall and that suburban over the years, knew exactly who he was when he called.
“Yea, I couldn’t believe that phone call, that was unreal,” she said.
Gall offered to meet Shoemaker at a car show to let her see the finished project, giving her a choice between Glendive and Helena. Shoemaker, who hadn’t been back to Glendive for years and was getting pressure from her Glendive friends to pay a visit, said she would meet Gall at the Badlands Drifters Car Club Cars in the Park show in June.
Gall gathered some friends and they made the 600-mile trek to Glendive on Friday.
Shoemaker said she arrived in town Thursday and drove “all over town trying to find a blue suburban.” She heard through the local grapevine that Gall was in town, but she wasn’t able to catch a glimpse of the suburban she sold to him 13 years earlier until Saturday’s car show.
It was worth the wait, she noted.
“It’s exactly as Dale would have wanted it, just fantastic,” she told Gall Saturday after seeing the shiny blue suburban for the first time in 13 years.
“I think it’s found a beautiful home,” she added.
The group from Hanna won the car show’s “Long Distance Award,” and Gall won a Silver Award for the suburban and Kevin Fecho from Hanna was a Top 12 Award jacket winner with his 1969 Ford Mustang.
Reach Jamie Ausk Crisafulli at rreditor@rangerreview.com.