DENWERKS: Whats That???

Hey, hope everyone is having a fantastic summer, July 4th is just right around the corner, and my birthday is coming up in August, celebrating my 8th anniversary of my 29th. But, this post isn't about me, though if you were thinking about sending me a little something, I am getting an English Bulldog puppy tomorrow going to take him in ride in my Land Rover Defender, for his first ride, so Bulldog knick knacks/Land Rover toys are always welcome, I am registered at Target, Monkeywards (as my grandpa used to call it), and Ebay. I already have a set of Bulldog Salt and Pepper Shakers though so take them off the list. Do you ever feel like you get a little off track, and long winded? I don't, just was curious if you did, lol.

Anyways, DENWERKS, what is that? Where did it come from? Who made it up? Well, for a long time, well since we began in 2003, I came up with the name Blue Oval Ranch, I was obviously into Fords but into a lot of other cars as well. I would have lots of people ask what type of Ranch I had, horse ranch, etc. I was like, yep, horse ranch, I had a dream of having an old barn, with a bunch of Ponies in each stall, but All Steel Ponies!!!

Anyways, we started this up in 2003. I had always dreamed of having old cars. I remembered going to the wrecking yards with my Grandpa when I was a kid. He was never a restorer, or a classic car buff by any means, but he did love a good old American Classic and introduced me to a lot of interesting finds.

I remember going out to the junkyard when I was a kid, lets say 6-7 years old. We were walking through looking for some parts for his old family car, 1965 New Yorker. This was around 1977 or so, there were plenty to pick from during these times. Anyways, this is were collecting began for me. I went through and was collecting keys, yeah really cool ones. I come up to my Grandpa, and say, hey check out all these old keys I am collecting. He is like were did you get all of those?? I am like in the trunks of the cars, in the little lock things. You should have seen the look on his face, lol. He said, you know why they leave all those keys in the lock cylinders don't you? And I am like, ummm, yeah. He said when a customer wants to buy a trunk lid, lock, or something in the trunk, it will have the key with it. I am like, oh yeah I know. Guess who spent the next hour taking 40 keys and finding what car they went to. Thankfully this was when Manufactures were proud to at least put there logo on the key. I got a good lesson that day, learned about different makes, logos, shapes of keys etc.

So I still have not answered the question, DENWERKS what is that. Well I told you I was long winded, I'll get around to it. Okay, my grandpa was about the hardest working guy I ever knew, just an amazing individual for sure. I thought he could do anything, I just didn't think it, I knew he could. I remember going down to the Columbia River, in eastern Washington with him one morning, and there was an Unlimited Hydroplane there, if you never seen one of these race, you got to, totally amazing. But this was back in the times when they were racing Allison and Rolls Royce Aircraft engines, and the driver sat behind the engine and most were still built out of wood. I actually got to see later in the 80's the first Turbine Powered Hydroplane talk about crazy.

The Pay-n-Pak, I remember seeing it flip 3 1/2 times in front of my eyes. Anyways, I was in amazement of the Hydroplane in front of us, we watched them put it in the water with a crane, they started it up, what a sound, the smell of the burnt racing fuel, 12 cylinders, wow. That day my grandpa tells me he could drive one of those, if he wanted to, I was like serioulsy. Now that I look back, he could have, how fast that is another story, its just throttle and steering you know, 3000hp, no big deal, I think I could do it as well now that I am older, I can't wait to amaze my grandchildren one day with this stuff.

Anyways, DENWERKS, here we go. His family, the Christensen's came over from Denmark in 1909, and he was the baby of the family born in 1910 after they got here. They did not speak any english while growing up, only Danish. They were hard working people, farmers, you name it they did it.

My grandpa was hard working, honest, just an amazing gentleman, grew up through the depression. He was a jack of all trades for sure, he knew everything, besides learning how to name dogs, he named every Poodle they had "Lady", guess I should name my Bulldog, "Gentleman" He Treated people with fairness, he was the type of guy that would give you the shirt off his back without any questions.

So I been wanting to do this for a long time, have a name with meaning, a name that I could respect and reflect on, during the good and bad times. So I chose to honor my grandpa James Christian Christensen (Chris) , my grandma Laquita, and their 3 children, my mom being the middle child with naming the business in his honor. DEN for Denmark, and WERKS, for Hard Worker, Remembering our time around Automobiles etc. So there you have it, DENWERKS!!

Here is a picture of my mom, around 2 years old, on here little tricycle, in front of their new 1953 Mercury Monterey Woody. I would love to find this car one day. Also above My family loved to fish, I spent countless hours fishing with my grandparents, just an awesome experience. The 1959 El Camino was their work vehicle for there Motel. My mom used to drive it to school in the 1960's, it was Yellow, with Desert Hills Motel on the doors. Below is the hotel, you can see that Monterey parked outside. This was a Postcard, I bought off the internet, I was totally stoked that I found this.