Growing up in a small town sometimes has benefits not realized until too late. As a kid, I remember a gentleman named "Mr Cooke" visiting my dad now and then and proudly showing off his "newest restore". (Dad worked as a very good auto mechanic in Worcester and was "networking within the business" long before it was popular: no wonder he was also a part-time local politician). Our farm house was just over the town line and a perfect place to stop and motor into the big driveway, turn around, say Hi to Leo & Joan and the kids (me or my sister), and then cruise back into the center of North Brookfield.
Frank Cooke had one of his Steamers flying down Rt 67 like a banshee and past the farm one summer day. I still can recall the steam trail it left.
All too often I would see one of these "old cars" tooling around and have little or no idea what it was all about. Frank Cooke passed away late last year, having been ill for some time. Unfortunately, he left no will, and from what is understood around town, his family is split on how to handle the artifacts and are "forcing" a sale of "stuff", although his son is attempting to retain some control of the restoration business itself.
http://www.osa.org/news/release/02.2006/In...20brookfield%22[/size]

The cool stuff is lot 1000 to 1029 of the online catalog:
http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/p...en=carsusacooke