Slingerlands man’s love of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ leads him to the love of his life
Matt Ogren gave his girlfriend an ultimatum: You buy me the General Lee, and we’ll get married.
His girlfriend, Desaree, knew exactly what Matt was talking about the iconic orange Dodge Charger from the television show The Dukes of Hazzard.` What she didn’t know was that ultimatum would become a reality.
`It was more of a joke than anything else,` said Matt, a hardwood flooring installer from Slingerlands. He’s a self-described `Dukes of Hazzard` fanatic, and it’d be hard to argue with him. When he was only 3 years old, Matt had his picture taken with one of the actual General Lees used on the show. He owns the series on DVD; he goes to DukesFest, a festival centered on the show, where he once met Boss Hog (actor Sorelle Booke). And the ringtone on his cell phone? `Good Ol’ Boys` by Waylon Jennings, or, as most people know it, the theme song to `The Dukes of Hazzard.`
So Matt’s playful jab at getting his own General Lee didn’t come as a surprise to Desaree. Since they began dating in 2006, she came to appreciate his love for `The Dukes` and his sense of humor.
`Last year, I started texting him pictures of engagement rings,` she said. `And he’d send me back pictures of the General Lee.`
Every once in a while, the couple would see one of the cars listed on the Internet, usually for some exorbitant price (some of the 300 or so prop cars used on the television show have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars), but last August, Matt stumbled on a 1970 Dodge Charger General Lee replica near Utica for what he said was a `reasonable price.`
`I started to shake,` he said. `We really didn’t have the money to buy this car ` it would’ve been stupid.`
But he e-mailed the seller anyway, sort of half-hearted, and sent the link to Desiree.
`I knew it was a very good price,` she said. `But my first reaction was ‘No, absolutely not.’ But then I thought of how important this car is to him and how it really helped him during his childhood.`
See, `The Dukes of Hazzard` and its world of fast cars, and the General Lee in particular, always held a place in Matt’s heart, helping him during difficult times in his early years.
`We had a rough childhood,` Matt said of himself and his five siblings. `That show was always a kind of escape for me.`
Matt grew up in a rundown housing complex in the City of Rensselaer. His mother worked nonstop to support her six kids, said Matt, and the going was tough. His father, a hard-drinking former Marine, was rarely around, and when he was well, Matt said, let’s just say that the fictional world of `The Dukes of Hazzard` was a better alternative to the Ogren household.
`Every week I knew I could escape into that world,` he said. `And when they were driving the General Lee around that tree at the end of every show, well, I’d get a little depressed knowing I had to come back to the real world.`
And though the TV show was canceled in 1985, Matt’s love of cars wasn’t.
`I had a lot of toy cars at my house for when he came over. He would race them along the sill of this big, double window,` said his grandmother, Frances Camponeschi of Delmar. The two were very close during Matt’s childhood, and they would play with two Matchbox Corvettes, in particular.
`And one day I told him, ‘Matthew, if I ever have a lot of money, I’m going to buy you a real Corvette,’` said Frances.
Years passed, and though Matt’s desire for a Corvette never waned, neither he nor his grandmother was in a position to buy one. When he was well past driving age, and it looked like they would never even ride in one, Frances suggested they rent one to drive around in for a night.
After finding out that renting one wasn’t all that cheap, either, he stumbled on a 1975 ‘Vette for sale at a price he could afford ` if he scraped together just about everything he had.
He did, and surprised his grandmother with it at a family dinner.
`I was shocked,` she said. `My God, I’m almost crying right now just thinking about it.`
She pulled Matt aside and insisted on paying for the car. `I said, ‘This has to be my gift. This was dream come true for me.’ When they were kids, they never had much, and certainly never anything big,` said Frances of her grandchildren. `Anything Matthew ever had, he had to work so hard for.`
And a few years later, there Matt was, e-mailing a stranger with hopes of buying his dream car, The General Lee.
A day went by with no response from the seller.
`I went from being so excited to so depressed,` he said. `But it was nice to imagine that I at least had a chance at the car.`
He didn’t need to imagine any longer. The following day, the seller responded. A price was agreed on and two days later Matt brought a trailer out to Utica to pick up The General.
The trip wasn’t without fanfare. On the way back to Slingerlands, an axel on Matt’s truck seized and they had to call a tow truck for the truck and newly bought car. While they were waiting, a State Trooper pulled up.
`The first words out of his mouth were, ‘Do you want me to call Cooter?’` said Matt, referring to the mechanic on the `The Dukes of Hazzard.` And, of course, when the tow truck driver showed up, not only did he have to have his picture taken with the General Lee, but he had to brig it back to his shop in Amsterdam because his boss didn’t believe he was towing the iconic car.
That night, after a long drive back from Utica and a fair amount of showing the car off to friends and family, Matt wondered about the fortune of finding his dream car at a price he could afford.
`What does it all mean?` he asked Desaree.
`What this means,` she said, `is that we’re going to get married now.`
And on Jan. 7 of this year, they did just that. The ceremony and reception were small, just the way they wanted. And though the General Lee precipitated the whole thing, it was nowhere in sight.
As for Frances, Matt takes her to cruise-ins at Tastee Treat on New Scotland Road now and again in the ’75 Corvette, of course.
`What a treat that is,` said Frances. `It’s a beautiful hobby, and these cars have brought Matt and Desaree so much joy.`
`I’m so glad that God has let me live this long to see Matthew enjoy these things,` said Frances, who will turn 85 this spring. `My grandchildren have given me my life.`
And when she `gets down low,` as she puts it, she said she thinks about the $5,300 she spent on a decades-old Corvette.
`What God has given me in life no money could ever buy.`
And when Matt gets low, he thinks of the joy he brings people when they see him driving that piece of nostalgia from their childhood or hear the trademark bars of `Dixie` when he taps the car’s horn.
He shares the car through events with the Flatbedders Car Club in Castleton, or just stopping to get a coffee on Delaware Avenue with fellow Flatbedder and Delmartian Keith Humphrey. He pays it forward with every cruise-in and car meet, and everywhere he goes, he says, someone asks about the car, and every time they leave with a smile on their face.
`It’s become therapeutic,` he said. `It’s beyond lucky; it’s been a blessing.`
And now that the couple is married, and Desaree has her ring and Matt his General Lee, are kids on the horizon?
`I’d probably have to buy him a Porsche,` said Desaree.“
