MATTHEW BURNETTE

Staff Writer

While David Pennington’s recently acquired 1983 DeLorean may not be equipped with the flux capacitor necessary to travel through time (film buffs know that was the ’82 model), it is a part of his effort to preserve the past.

He owned one back in the 80s and still has the original brochure. That DeLorean was eventually traded for a 1984 Corvette for his daughter to drive while she was in high school and then college before selling it.

The DeLorean line itself only had about 9,000 models that were produced in the lifetime of the car, and there were only 276 of the 1983 model manufactured.

“I just like them,” he said. “It’s just a real rare car.”

Pennington looked for quite a while for another ’83 model before receiving some information from a contact of his about one that was available.

“I had been hunting for years, and then a car collector friend of mine told me about the sale, and that’s how I found it,” he recalled. “It’s just knowing people. That’s all.”

This DeLorean has less than 700 miles on it and had only one owner previously. Pennington has all of the maintenance records for the car along with the original tires and every part that’s ever been taken off of it.

All of the items are displayed in a garage on Pennington’s property in a shrine to the car including pictures that were taken of him and his original DeLorean along with other items. There’s also other DeLorean memorabilia including a t-shirt from 1983.

In addition to the DeLorean, to put it plain and simple, Pennington has a lot of stuff.

According to his estimation, he has around roughly 75,000 items in his collection from gas pumps and signs, pop culture memorabilia and historical artifacts.

All of his items are housed in four or five outbuildings on his property.

“I just love being able to hold onto the past,” he explained. “Think about it. A lot of this stuff is in landfills or crushed, and I’ve got some of it for other people to see, and I show it to them all the time. My wife and my daughter and my son, all of us are involved in it.”

Many of the items in Pennington’s collection are displayed at his and his wife Nancy’s restaurant Jiffy Burger, a Manchester institution since its opening in 1965.

“People love to see it, and they love it,” enthused Pennington. “There was somebody in the restaurant the other day and they were talking about that. He said it’s like stepping back in time when you go to Jiffy Burger.”

“I have stuff from when there wasn’t even a Cracker Barrell,” he added. “I always put stuff in the restaurant, and if you’ve been up there lately, you can tell it’s packed.”

Despite the multitude of items displayed at Jiffy Burger, it doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface.

One could spend an entire day looking through the collection and then realize they’ve still got two more buildings to look through.

Pennington says he has a particular affinity for gas pumps and signs. He estimates there’s about 64 pumps stored in one of his building, all of different brands and designs.

“I just love the nostalgia of it,” he said. “When I was growing up, gas cost 24 cents a gallon, and I have seen it 16 cents when there was a gas war.”

Of all the ones he owns, Pennington says if he had to keep one, it would be either his “Mae West” pump, named for the Golden Age actress and known for its curvaceous, hourglass-shaped lower metal housing said to resemble the star.

“Really, I like them all, but if I was gonna ever keep one and not let it go, it would be that one or a Wayne 60.”

Pennington’s collection also includes items from a number of different pop culture segments including Star Wars, Star Trek, Toy Story and old country and western stars among many others.

A lot of the items he has are autographed, including an extensive Gene Autry collection.

Many of the items he’s been able to get signed through connections he has, a lot of which came from an unexpected source.

“You would be surprised how many different people come through the restaurant. It’s pretty dang cool actually,” he said. “But when I used to go to the Grand Ole Opry, I never sat out front. I sat in the back with the Grand Ole Opry people, and they’d sign anything I’d ask them to.”

Pennington keeps humidifiers in his buildings to keep the moisture out and preserve the items, many of which are easily 100 years old or more.

He says he prefers to trade as opposed to buying things.

“If you sell stuff, you ain’t got nothing left, but if you trade, you’ve got something again,” Pennington explained.

He also tries to acquire items that have already been refurbished as opposed to going through the process himself.

“I’ve done it every way you could think of. I’ve bought them and had them fixed. I’ve bought them and tore them down and let them fix them,” he said. “But the best way to do it is to let them refurbish them and fix them and you just buy them from them. It’s like buying an old car. It’s cheaper to go find one at a sale.”

A Dukes of Hazzard pedal car that was signed when the three lead stars visited Tullahoma is another standout item in the collection. There’s also an old Kentucky Fried Chicken weathervane, a rarity due to the materials used to make them, according to Pennington.

“They were on top of the buildings and they were just painted metal, so most of them are rusted so bad that you can’t hardly tell what they are,” he explained.

Pennington says that he knows people all over the country. He went to Atlanta to get the herd of green dinosaurs that are stored outside of one of his buildings, one of which lived outside of Jiffy Burger for quite a while.

Though he does travel to pick up items, a lot of folks come to him to make deals.

Born and raised in Tullahoma, Pennington formerly operated Softy’s Drive-In in the city from 1963 until 1965 before moving to Manchester to open Jiffy Burger.

Being a lifelong Coffee Countian and despite the large number of pop culture items in his collection, some of the most interesting artifacts that are on display are the ones that tell the local history.

There’s a sign from the Studebaker Wagon dealership owned by C.A. Tosh that was located on the Manchester Square and one of the old parking meters that were utilized for several years in town.

The largest piece of local history Pennington has is an entire wall from the exterior of an office owned by Dr. Hough, a Civil War veteran who practiced in Manchester and shipped patented medicines all over the country.

Several businesses advertised on the wall which offers a glimpse into the city’s past.

“This wall here, you can’t read it, but up at the top it says, “Ragsdale Market.” That was his nephew during World War 2,” he exhibited. “It also says “Electromatic Laundry” on the wall. That was the original laundromat in Manchester, Tennessee back in the 1950s. They used Bendix washing machines. They said if they were all running at the same time the whole building shook because they were huge.”

“When he told me he was bringing a wall out here, I said, “What the heck is wrong with him?” commented Nancy in passing. “He’s done lost his mind.”

Some treasures from Manchester’s most recent past include an extensive collection of memorabilia from the early years of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival including passes, posters, advertisements and a signed guitar from Dave Matthews.

Pennington also has around 50 other guitars that have been signed by artists such as Vince Gill, Kris Kristofferson and B.B. King.

On the other side of the building where Pennington stores his musical collection, he also has a recording booth from the original WSMR radio station that includes turntables, a license, reel to reel, commercial tapes and a microphone, in addition to several other artists’ autographs.

While it may seem that Pennington’s collection is busting at the seams and couldn’t possibly hold anything else, he says that he has no intention of ever stopping collecting and will instead just build more buildings to hold stuff if need be or continue trading.

He wants to maintain his collection for those who remember the items, allowing them to do a little time travelling themselves.

“People love this stuff,” said Pennington. “They like going back in time to when they were little and when they were young.”