Let's Drive Down Memory Lane: Your First Car
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 engagement, 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 Forrest 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?
Simca Aronde - P60 1961
I borrowed it from a friend in 1969 and I damaged it slightly. So, he asked me to buy it. I think I gave him the equivalent of USD$100.
Source
Omg that is adorable. :) Nice first car.
1981 buick century cop model, the back windows didn't even go down. my grandparents gave it to me when i went to college. it had a cracked engine block from a previous owner's mistreatment. i loved that car. it took me everywhere, i could fit a dozen of my friends in it to go to the drive in. it ran when it shouldn't have, and broke down magically right across the street from the auto parts store, several times. it was running a bit rough and the repairs were going to cost more than the car was worth. so i sold it to a parts yard. as i drove it to the yard, it began to completely give up, and when i drove into the parking lot it quit entirely and would not start again or even make a click. i was sad, it was like the car kept running only because i needed it. i had so many good times that would not have been possible without it. i miss that car.
saleofcar.com/img/buick-century-sedan-322278781220/0.jpg
YES! I love your story. I understand exactly what you mean, by the car that broke down in all the right places. :) I loved your story, and I can see that would have been a great first car!
thanks for reminding me, i even got a little teary.
I feel sappy about my first car too. Like a first love. :)
Plymouth Satelite Sebring... believe like a 1973... powerful sucker.. until I drove it into a lake. It could have been worse...
Looked something kind of like this:
lol, that looks like my 2nd car. When I was done driving it I entered it into a demo-derby, but that story is for another post! Thank you for sharing.
My 2nd car looked like this...
Had a cool retractable third headlight.... and eventually we nicknamed it "green puddle" due to overheating and spilling anti-freeze.
I changed the fuel pump on this thing on my back on the side of a busy interstate once.
That is not my actual car, but it looks pretty accurate. It was a good car, it just had massive mileage.
Ha, I can remember how old I was at any given time, by remembering what car I had. lol. I had a little honda that was a million years old, and had a million miles on it, but that old thing just never died. :)
I liked that Subaru "Green Puddle" enough that if/when I trade my current car in I think I'd like to have a Subaru Outback.
I had an Outback once and it was a great car. Our family outgrew it. It was a great car.
It was in pretty good shape though needed a lift kit as back springs were kind of shot, and it hadn't been spiffed up to look powerful. It was a car that previously was owned by my grandmother who had passed away.
I linked to a blog post I wrote months ago about driving it into the lake.
I was just reading that. Too bad I can't comment on your first post. :) Great story and I am glad you got out of the lake in one piece.
is a greased lightning!
ha ha! I can picture you dancing and singing on it, like in the movie Grease.
It was a white 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass. The interior was baby blue and I loved that car. It was the first purchase I made on my own after high school. I cried for a week after selling it.
The were some LARGE cars! Funny how much emotion a car can bring to our lives. :)
OMG! It was a huge car, but it was a great first car. Very sturdy for sure.
1973 Buick Electra 225. Paid like $250.00 for it in 1994. I was 18 years old.
Bought it from some drunk down the road from me. He thought the tranny was out of it because it wouldn't shift right. I took a chance thinking it was the vacuum modulator. Turned out I was correct. A 15.00 part did it right.
That thing had a 455 CID V8 in it, would lay rubber for 30 feet easily. Was in near perfect condition since the guy I bought it from had taken it as a partial payment for some work he had done for an elderly lady who didn't drive it anymore.
Car rode like it was on clouds.
Wow! What a find. Beautiful car, powerful car! Very awesome. Thank you for sharing, I bet you had some fun in that car.
Drove many a mile in that thing. Good times for sure.👍
66 VW Bug
@gringalicious, is this your vw bug? I love these cars. Tons of them in california?
That photo is not mine. i had one very similar in the states before we left. My Dad bought for me. We had to leave it behind.
@whatsup and @gringalicious, i love the bugs. My mom was poor and she could only afford bugs for our family. Always take a second look when i see one driving by.
I know a guy who played professional basketball, and as odd as it sounds, he drove bugs for the leg room. I had no idea. Many of my friends had bugs, and I also have a soft spot for them.
Side bar - Did you ever play slug bug? lol.
@whatsup, too many bugs around here.
Omg, that is awesome. My son's first car was a bug (73 ish) it is still in my garage, although my son doesn't live nearby. :) I love the old bugs they were great cars.
This car Mustang is very attractive, especially with the engine design with more horsepower, I like it like this car,
and not in the age of the car that we saw, but the design power.
It was fast, and in my small town... The car was kind of famous. I hit the buck during hunting season. So, it was quite the small town story. Yes, I grew up in a small red neck town, and I loved it.
very proud of you, not everyone can like you,
I can learn from you for anything else for me.
Hi @whatsup
I had a 1979 Golf LS, which was only an 1100 cc, but I had lots of fun with the car, my friends and I always raced against each other, the one had a Datsun 1200, one had a Wolsley 1100, and the other an old 620 Datsun bakkie (truck), they were all a good match for each other. As I was one of the first guys with a car at school, we sometimes loaded up to 9 people in the car to go places, the car never failed me, except one when I was on my way to write an exam, but it was due to a wire coming loose from the rev-counter that I fitted, thus not due to a fault of the car.
That sounds like a great first car. I laughed at the idea that you were the first person to have a car. I remember who that was in my school as well.