Tuesday, November 17, 2009
My First Car
Let's continue on with "firsts." What was your first car? I remember mine very fondly.
My first car was a beautiful 1968 red Camaro. It had a black vinyl top and a black interior which got very hot in the summer. It also had a fancy schmancy eight-track tape deck. Unfortunately, I sold all of them at a garage sale. I wish I had at least one eight track to show my daughter!
My Camaro was gorgeous and could really hug the curves. I loved it. My dad was a skilled, artistic, perfectionist of a car painter, and when a little rust appeared, he painted the entire thing. It looked brand new and was very shiny. I wish I had never sold it.
How about you? What was your first car?
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Beth, your first car sounds very cool. My first car when I had my driver's license was a 1976 volkswagen bug. It also had a fancy schmancy eight-track tape deck which played Led Zeppelin's, "In Through The Out Door" over and over.
ReplyDelete(I did have cars prior to ever being legally allowed to drive. we lived out in the country and my grandparents bought us a pontiac lemans for my siblings and I to practice driving. I think I was 14 or 15 then.)
JarieLyn, I always loved Volkswagen bugs. So cute. What color was it? I played a lot of music, too, but more like Doobie Brothers, the Eagles, Rod Stewart and Lionel Richie.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather taught me to drive when I was just 14 in his blue, stick-shift pick-up, no less. There was a lot of lurching going on!
Forgot to mention my Camaro cost $900. It was so cool.
Learning to drive was an unfulfilled desire I recall first suffering at around age two, when I sat behind the wheel of Dad's black Chevrolet and tried in vain to stretch my legs to the pedals. If I had one desire that drove me, it was the urge to have wheels, so at age 12 I borrowed the keys to my girlfriend's father's Jeep.
ReplyDeleteOn went the motor and off went the two of us, but not very far. The Jeep impacted the brand new 6-foot high board fence around her backyard, which crash killed the engine and a few boards.
My friend and I returned the keys to the place we'd found them on her dining table and NO ONE EVER SAID A WORD. Turns out her dad had a drinking problem and must have thought he ran the fence down.
At 19, my parents bought me my first car, a baby blue 1948 4-door Chevrolet sedan which I promptly named El Farto, the Mexican Beauty, because its muffler fell off and it made loud putting sounds as I put the pedal to the metal.
At age 21 I sold El Farto to my friend Ginger so I could buy a Hillman Minx. Shortly after she took possession, the motor burned up and El Farto stopped poot-pooting forever. It turned out I had never put oil into the engine, as I did not know a thing about servicing cars.
Lesson: There's more to driving than sitting behind the wheel and steering.
The Hillman Minx was great until the wheel fell off.
Wanda
Wanda, you crack me up. Loved hearing about your car escapades--especially El Farto!
ReplyDeleteYou know, somehow I can picture Wanda going through all of that. What a character!
ReplyDeleteMy first car was a green something or other. I paid half, and my dad paid the other half. I wrecked it in the mall parking lot the first day I drove it. Someone flying around a corner hit me in the side. Never even saw him. No one was hurt, though.
I finally traded that in for a bright orange small car (can't recall the name of it, but it was one of those cars like the Pinto that they quit making because they were awful) However mine lasted TEN years before anything ever went wrong. Not bad. Only cost $3000 back then too.
I had a 1985 4X4 Ford Bronco with a fog light bar on top. When I had my learner's permit, my dad told me to stop and get the mail one day. I accidentally ran into the neighbor's mailbox, which smashed it horribly and dented the front of the car. Oops.
ReplyDeleteFor Christmas the year I turned 17, mom and dad told me they sold my Bronco. I had to drive their F-150 pick up and I hated it. Before school let out for Christmas break, they showed up in my Bronco, which they had custom painted with yellow, orange and blue flames. I knew they had been looking at paint jobs, but they told me if was for one of my dad's friend's sons. I believed them. Coolest Christmas present ever.
My husband had a red and white Ford Crown Victoria red interior, when we got married in 1960. No lock on the heavy fold down seats. He tried to teach me to drive by the scream method! He screamed, "Stop!" And on a dime we stopped. He almost went through the windshield from the heavy seat pushing him forward. He screamed "What did you do that for?" "You told me to! Did I almost hit something I did not see?" He said, "I expected you to pull over to the curb and stop normally."
ReplyDeleteAfter whiplash he did let me drive again after my mother taught me to drive.
Follow up story:about sixteen years later his job with the State Highway Dept., needed to shuffle people around so they did not have to lay them off, he was transfered to the drivers license department, giving people their drivers tests. A little oriental woman
almost rear ended a car and he screamed,"Get out." She did and started running down the middle of the road. He had to go and get her and tell her he meant, "for her to get out and go around the car and he would drive them back to the office."
These stories are TOO funny. You're all a scream.
ReplyDeleteShirley, I cannot believe you had a wreck the first DAY. My sister had one the first month and we thought that was bad. I always wondered what happened to Pintos. Looks like we'd see one once in awhile.
Becky, absolutely the coolest Christmas present ever. I'm sure all the guys wanted to ride with you.
Jan, I always heard horror stories about the driver's license department. Bet it was your husband!
Aww.. But do you still have photos of your first car? So you can show some to your daughter. =] My first car was a minivan, and I bought it two years ago. I am so in love with this car because, it's very spacious! The color also suits my personality, and it has pretty good mileage as well!
ReplyDelete