Turn the clock back five decades and imagine cool cat Jim Cipollone driving his hot rod Chevy into a South Philadelphia diner straight out of “American Graffiti.”
Jimmy revs up his engine then shuts it down as a waitress on roller skates cruises up to his car. He’s wearing motorcycle boots, blue jeans, and a belt with its buckle to his side to go along with a white cut-off T-shirt. Jimmy’s all set to order a Coke and burger, when, all of a sudden, he spots his dream girl
Her name is Geri; she’s 18 and, like Jimmy, too cool for words. Before you know it, Jimmy’s sharing a Coke with Geri and two are ready to drive his Chevy to the levee and write the book of love.
Turn the clock up five decades to the present. Jim and Geri Cipollone have been married 49 years; have four children and seven grandchildren. They live in the Village of Palo Alto.
Much has changed but one thing remains the same: Jim still drives a hot Chevy. Next to his family, the love of Cipollone’s life is a 1957 Bel-Air Chevrolet. He bought the car 16 years ago for about $20,000. It has been appraised for $55,000 and might bring a lot more if he sold it.
Right now, Cipollone, who has spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours restoring the car, has no intention of selling. “Let me tell you something, everything in this world is for sale, but I love this car.”
Maybe it’s the looks. It’s easy to fall for a pristine, turquoise, ’57 Chevy, with glistening white roof and lots of sparkling chrome.
When Cipollone, 71, sits behind that wheel, in front of two furry, bouncing dice hanging from the rear-view mirror, it’s like going back in time. “You’re as old as you feel,” he said. “Look, I’m still old but when I drive this car I feel younger. Working on cars gives me something to do. If you sit around and don’t do anything, you disintegrate.”
In addition to the ’57 Chevy, Jim, a member of The Villages Antique Automobile Club of America, also owns ’56 and ’55 Chevrolets.
“He always loved Chevys,” Geri Cipollone said. “When I first met him at the diner, he was driving a ’55 Chevy and I thought it was great. He was pretty nice, too.”
The ’57 Chevy is an icon for car lovers.
“It’s sexy; has a sleek design, unique color and a lot of power,” said Al Stone, president of The Villages AACA. “But you know what I think made this car: the fins.”
Check out the back of a ’57, and you will find a couple of tail fins sloping up towards the sky.
“It was the first year when the fins really mattered,” Stone said.
The car is attractive now, but, “back in the day this was really a great looking car,” Geri Cipollone said. “Everybody wanted to drive a ’57 Chevy. People who had one back then, cherish seeing it now. When Jim and I show the car or drive it around, people stop and want to touch it and sit in it. It’s one of those cars everybody loves.”
Cipollone went through an adventure to buy the ’57 Chevy. He saw a newspaper ad for the car being sold in New Jersey. Cipollone met the seller on a bridge between New Jersey and Philadelphia. They brokered a deal on the side of the road as other traffic was whizzing by them.
After Cipollone bought the car, a couple of guys turned up at his front door. “They were two big dudes wearing dark suits and they pulled out Internal Revenue Service badges,” he said. “They asked me: ‘Do you own a 1957 Chevrolet?’ I told them I did.
“Then they asked me how I paid for it. I told them with three checks. They asked for copies of the checks. I gave the copies to them. Turns out they weren’t investigating me, but the other guy.”
Despite paying the money, working the man hours and dealing with other issues, Cipollone has no regrets about buying the car. “How could I? It makes me feel so good and it makes other people feel good. It’s like being a kid again.”
Cipollone’s family shares that enthusiasm.
“When the grandkids come over,” his wife said, “the first thing they want to do is sit in the car.”