Let's Drive Down Memory Lane: First Cars - Discussion

 I've asked this before and some of you already answered, but we have many new users and I'm trying to promote discussion.  

 
What was your first car?  Where did you get it? How did it Make You feel? 

 *1966 Mustang this one was not mine!  The picture represents what I wanted mine to be.

Traveling down memory lane can be fun sometimes, and in many areas your first car is nearly a "coming of age" experience.  Just for fun and discussion, I want to hear about your first car.  I have put some ideas below of questions to answer, to be thought provoking,  Describe your experience with your first car.  

• Did you buy it?  
• How old were you when you purchased it?
• Were you proud of it?  
• Were you embarrassed by it?  
• What are your memories of your first car?  
• What happened to that first car?  
• Did you sell it, trade it, crash it?

I will go first.

My first car was a 1966 Ford Mustang much like the one pictured above... 

Only mine wasn't in good shape, pretty, or nice.  It was white and had been backed into a tree.  It had a lot of body damage.   The lifters knocked and it burned a lot of oil.  I think I paid $400.00 dollars for it.  (It was 1984) I earned the money by babysitting and working summers at the Forest Service, and I purchased it my Senior year of high school, a friend helped me pick it out.   I was proud of my car, but only because I had big dreams of restoring it to it's former beauty.  Although, it wasn't a nice car, I was in love with that car and my dreams of making it beautiful.  I remember the sense of freedom I had when I carried those keys with me.  I didn't have to ask anyone for a ride, I could go where I wanted.  I lived in a small town, where there were no buses, and town was a few miles from my house, so transportation was always a problem.  Suddenly, on the days my car would start, I had freedom.  Although, I am not mechanically inclined,  I lived in an area where restored older cars were popular and many people were happy to help work on the car with little incentive, it was kind of a hobby.  Someone I knew, helped pound the dents out and did their best with some putty, and we spray painted it with primer, while I saved for the paint job.

My Dad fixed the mechanical issues, one weekend at a time.  I had to pay for the parts, but he volunteered his time.  Sometimes his friends would be around having a beer and they would throw their efforts in and the car progressed.  We fixed the starter, replaced the alternator, the radiator, other things I no longer remember, but the car started on most days now, it no longer dripped oil.
By this time I was commuting to a local Community College my first year of college.  One night coming home from school on a foggy night, I drove my dream car right into a large buck.  I didn't see him in the fog, until the last moment, and he and I both froze.  When the moment was over there was a dead buck and a totaled '66 Mustang.  Of course at the time I was really sad.  I also had a pretty sore neck for a couple of weeks from the whiplash. I knew it could have been worse. 

 *this picture is from pixabay, but for those of you that know deer, the buck I hit was a six point buck.  Big deer. 

 I do love the memory of my first car, and all the hopes and dreams I had for it.  I have never again owned a classic car, nor do I intend to, but that first car brought me freedom, fun, goals, and represented the beginning of being an adult.

What was your first car and what did it mean to you?
@whatsup