"The [1984 AMC Eagle] is sorted - safely cared for (and regularly improved) by its current owner, its wings spread so that it may fly through foul Flagstaff winters, where only vehicles with tire chains dare tread," I wrote in the February 2020 issue of Hemmings Classic Car, about daily-driven Drivable Dream Eagle wagon that was brought from a barely-running hulk to daily-driver status. Within the owner's family, it became known as the Freeagle-a combination of the car's given name and its purchase price. That issue showed up in most readers mailboxes on a mid-December Friday or Saturday, depending on where you live.

Days later, we got word: Matt Edmonds, owner/driver/restorer of the wagon in question, made it through a harrowing ordeal with a deer, but only just. Such are the perils of driving a Drivable Dream. "Didn't even have time to brake," he told us. It did require a late-night tow back to the family barn in Flagstaff, but as these things go, it could have been a lot worse. Matt was unscathed; the mule deer doe was small, and alas did not live, but Matt hit her squarely so that the Eagle's grille shattered, the hood buckled, and the radiator and HVAC condenser were pushed into the engine fan and punctured-but the fenders and bumper appeared not to be tweaked. (The rare factory-optioned Marchal fog lamps were also lost, though Matt recovered the covers.) So it's just a question of replacing all of the grille, headlamp bezels, trim and supports. A thousand little 35-year-old parts (and two or three large ones) that you never have to think about finding or replacing unless something like this happens and you find yourself putting one back together.

RIP to the deer. Crashes on classics are a lot different than today's cars.