My first car was a 1963 Ford pickup. Ol' blue, Hoop-de-ville, The Blessed Mother of Acceleration! It was a pukey bluish color, had an AM radio that didn't work, and retreads for tires. It was 6 cylinders of pure fury with a tricky 3 speed column shift assuring mind bending acceleration and asphalt buckling torque. I really loved that truck. I would go anywhere and do anything in it.
I remember one time my brakes had completely failed but in my 16 yr. old brain I thought it would still be ok to drive this death trap to school. I know, stupid right? (16 yr old thinking has been known to be a little skewed.) I figured if I left a little early to beat the traffic and stayed a little late I should be fine, and I would have a good story to share with my friends. My plan worked brilliantly in the morning. I was among the first people at school, you remember them, the smart people who came early to study or do some extra credit stuff. You know, the nerdy ones who are cleaning our teeth, giving our kids shots, and raping us in our divorces now. Yeah those kids!
I clearly should have studied the after school traffic patterns more thoroughly before concocting my plan for greatness in a time of no brakes. People apparently were in no hurry to leave school. There were cars freakin everywhere, in the morning people just pretty much showed up in a clump. They leave one by one in their own sweet time. SHEESH PEOPLE I DON"T HAVE ALL DAY!
I decided to chance it and smacked a car. Well really just bumped it. In a way it was funny cause the girl in it was lookin at me like..."are you gonna stop?" And I was lookin at her thinking "Dude, you really should move cause I got eb-so-lutely no brakes". Her folks were really cool about the "accident". Ok so I forgot to mention that I had previous knowlege of the no-brakes thing.
Another time a friend and I decided it would be super cool to drive my truck with our feet on the dash. We cranked up the idle so she would run without pushin the gas and off we went. About 100 yards later we hit a speed bump to fast on our way out of the school parking lot and kicked out my windshield. All of a sudden the joke was on us. Since the glass didn't break we stuck it in the back of the truck and continued on our merry way. For the record I do not recommend driving without your windshield. It totally shields you from the wind. (and bugs) Who'd a thunk it? We eventually made it to his house, found some bathroom caulk and did a fine job re-fitting the windshield.
I had some really good times in that old truck. If any of you have a first car story I would soooo like to hear it. Thanks for stopping by!
From One Mother, to Another
9 months ago
13 comments:
You SO should have started writing at age 10. What a case you are! (Puh-leeze leave your brain to science... Or me. I have a lab, you know.) Continue!
Cynica, I've seen your lab and I am not going in there. Thanks for the ego boost. I did start writing at age 10. mostly the alphabet and my name but it counts.
You WISH you had seen my lab. You must be thinking of a different lab. Perhaps the lab where you deposit your random pee samples for the RR. I'm not there! My lab is off limits to everything but dead insects and people named Brock.
Okay... first car?
My mother's hand-me-down 1980 (?) Datsun 210. I don't know the year because that car wasn't SO important to me.. so unimportant that I never changed the oil and the engine blew enough smoke to be considered the REAL inspiration for "Puff The Magic Dragon" ...
The first car I actually BOUGHT was a little white Cadillac Cimeron (I know, I was the only person that bought one) with a leaky moon roof that got stuck every other Thursday in August and trunk that turned into a swimming pool when it rained.
But OOOHHH!!! those power seats that reclined ALL the way back... oh yea... LOTSA memories in that car!!!
Excuse me know while I try to re-level my halo!!
Great site.. mind if I link to it?
Cimmaron yeah I heard they sold one. LOL sure you can link to my site but be forewarned, i can't link back to you cause I'm an idiot. Really I don't know how...but I'm ok with it. Thanks for stopping by. I really liked your posts!
I remember this truck. My memory of it is you, Van Halen's "Running with the Devil," and me thinking you were the coolest thing on two legs. Ah, brother worship.
Todd, yeah the boom box in the seat was pretty cool huh?
Brilliant piece!
I had a Volvo 240. It was like driving a tank! There was no such thing as power steering on it. It was solid, dependable and when I started it up in the morning, it sounded like a tiger cub growling. It would plough right through the snow because of the rear wheel drive. I loved her. I remember having it until the doors were literally falling off, and because I didn't have money to put it into the garage, I held the passenger door on with string! Yeah, string. What was I thinking? I nearly cried when I had to get rid of the old dear. I'll never have another car like her.
Oh Mark ... I grew up with a gaggle of cool dudes in a loose mood - just like you (well - most of them actually couldn't write their names ... or the alphabet - so perhaps you were in the upper echelon of that order). Life would not have been the same without the likes of y'all.
I have a killer story about my first car ... but now I gotta put it in my own blog - since I haven't posted in a few. :) Thanks for the idea...
Heather, I know! letting go of our old cars is tough. It's funny too because most people look at it like it's just some broken down piece of junk but if they knew the history they might feel otherwise.
Danica, you're back finally. Over the flu I hope. Unfortunately now Spot has vanished. I hope the flu isn't spreading in blogville. Your post this morning was so awesome. Really took me back to when my son was little.
Yep, my sentiments exactly! My car's all have their own 'personality'. I animate all my cars, like they're people. So, I'm always sad to see them go.
Oh, is there any way that I can subscribe to comments here? I have to find what pages I've posted comments on to see if you've replied. I'd rather get notification by email :D
Heather I don't know if you can subscribe or not. I'm sort of an idiot when it comes to doing things on this computer...Iwill try to figure it out though. Thanks for coming by!
No problem Mark. It may be that you have to install a plugin or something. I can't remember how it works on Blogger. It's been a while since I've used it.
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