I remember back in the mid to late 80s, into the early 90s, occasionally stopping over at Foster Coach Sales in Sterling, IL and walking into their back "inventory room" behind their main sales offices, and oooohing and aaaaahing at their most recent trade-ins. They only sell ambulances now, but back then they sold both funeral coaches, and ambulances. Even though the days of the professional car ambulances were already over-with back then, they still received plenty of older combos, and occasionally even high-top ambulances in on trade for new coaches, and I used to love walking among them and just looking. Their location back then was an old Eagle's grocery store back in the early 70s, and their inventory room was usually left dark other than maybe 1 or 2 fluorescent lights, so it was kind of dark and even a little eerie with all the old hearses back there, in such darkness. I always got permission to go look, so I was left alone to just open the doors, and peak in to see what was there because all the cars were left unlocked as they were never outside in their main parking lot where they would usually keep a few of their brand new offerings during daylight hours.
I remember one hightop ambulance in particular that I absolutely fell in love with. It was a brand new looking 1973(ish) red and white C-B, with black interior. It was literally the very first high top professional car ambulance I had ever seen the interior of, so I had no idea what to expect. It was beautiful, even this was probably the very early 1990s, it was already nearly 20 years old and you could tell it had never had a hard life because it was in excellent condition. I remember being amazed at all the overhead switches for the lights and siren/horn, and seeing switches for things I didn't recognize like "ditch lights" and "tunnel lights", and not really knowing what that meant. On our ambulance, which was a 1980 Wheeled Coach Ford Econoline, they were labeled as "flashers" instead of tunnel lights (along with the wig wags, fireballs, and twinsonic). and I even remember its smell. As a volunteer for our local ambulance association, I recognized its smell because it smelled just like our seldom used ambulances. Not a new car smell per se, but a definite "medical unit" type smell, probably from all the plastic nasal cannulas, cravats, bandages etc. I also noted with amazement that other than the extra switches on the ceiling above the dash, and the two-way radio, and the extra C-B added gauges and the Cole Herse battery switch, and "NO SMOKING OXYGEN IN USE" plaque above the glove compartment, she looked identical to a regular passenger car with bench front seat; my grandma had an early 70's Olds 98 that looked almost identical other than hers had a dark moss green interior. This old girl was a beauty, and I wished I was rich so I could buy it on the spot and wished I knew how many code 3 runs she had made during her working life.
That same visit I also sat in their waiting area to talk to someone, so I could buy a Code 3 Whelen Dash Laser with mirror setup for my private vehicle (since I had a legitimate need for ambulance runs) and wanted to replace my old blue Federal Fireball with a new blue dash laser. So I had to order it from one of their salesmen (and they had to order it directly from Whelen since they disappointingly didn't have any in stock, and it took 4-6 weeks to arrive), and all of them were busy so I thumbed through Walt McCall's 75 Years of Cadillac & LaSalle as well as Thom McPherson's Ambulances and Funeral Cars since 1900, both of which were on a coffee table in the waiting room. That was the very first time I had ever seen either book!
All I can say now is that I wish more than ANYTHING I would have known you guys back then, and would have had the foresight to follow Steve Loftin's lead, and many of you guys' lead, and taken photographs instead of just having the memory.
Sorry for the long rant, I guess fall weather makes me feel nostalgic.
Bill, I absolutely understand your desire to find a nice pro car for you and Lucille to enjoy, I hope you find one soon!!!