The photo is of my Dad's beach buggy
This is my post for #memoirmonday #39 prompt What was your first car? hosted by @ericvancewalton
My Dad would never let me get my license so I never had a first car when I lived at home. When I married my first husband he had a car his parents had given him. I can not remember the year of the car but this was in 1974 it was an Oldsmobile, red with a white top.
I got my first ticket in that car and I was 21 years old and still did not have a license. I was living in California my husband had a broken leg and they would not let him drive on the military base with it. He was driving until a mile from the gate, we passed a State Trooper who had someone else pulled over. We switched drivers before the gate, when we arrived I was driving and the guard had me wait for the State Trooper to get there.
The first car that I owned on my own was one I bought from my brother, I am not good with makes of cars but I can tell you the color, it was green and it had bald tires, I carried 4 spares in the trunk. Missouri roads are dirt and bumpy, one day one of the headlights fell out and I had 2 flats. I do not know if it was from the headlight or they just picked that time to go flat. The guys at the garage knew me well, they would put back tires that fit my car because they knew I would show up needing more.
One time I told my Dad the car felt weird when driving, he found one of the tires that I had not tightened the lug nuts tight enough, and some of the lug bolts were worn halfway through and some were gone.
I came outside to go to work one morning and my car looked funny, one front tire was crooked. The front axle frame broke overnight while it was sitting there. I was thankful that it did not do this while I was driving.
The next car I bought from my Mom, it was a fine car, a Lincoln Continental, blue in color with blue leather seats. The power steering was going out in it so my 2nd husband wanted to trade it in for a different car, it was also a gas guzzler.
We bought the car we are sitting in.
This was one of my top cars, it was an Opal, made in Germany, it had two front seats and no back seat, the perfect car for a Mother of 5, I am sorry you can't go shopping with me, there is no room for you and food. It was my quiet time when I drove it.
But a tree ran into it, and that was my second and last ticket.
Old Betsy, with her slant 6 engine. I could fix everything on her. I had some good times with this car and a couple of bad ones. One time I let my sister borrow it, this was at the beginning of her drug use. After a few days I had to report it missing, the cops found it in a known drug area with the stereo system gone from it.
But the good outweighs the bad, many days I had it filled with kids, some sitting on each other so they could make it to their ball games and to hear the laughter coming from it when they won their game...priceless.
On one of my birthdays, me and several friends rode on it, no one inside, for the entire length of Jungle Trail. I drove sitting on the roof with my foot on the steering wheel. Then we all went to the crab hole for a swim. You do not need to spend money to have fun, you might be a little stupid but as long as no one gets hurt, you have a good time.
We have had several vehicles that had names, there was the truck that the top of the roof and windshield were separated so when you drove down the road it made a flapping noise, Flap Jack.
The kids name most of my cars and trucks.
There was an El Camino called Eddie Ranchero. A yellow car was called the Black Hole because the floorboard was rotted and if anything got dropped it would disappear. I still have the Beast and even though I can not open the driver door from the inside or open the passenger door from the outside and I have a piece of PVC pipe for a gear shifter and a cracked frame, it still runs.
photos are mine
