Friday, May 25, 2007

Friday Flashback - 1975 My First Car

In 1975 I received my first car, a 1968 VW Beetle. She began her life with me as a white car with black interior. Yes, yes, of course there's a story!

My parents divorced in the Spring of 1972. My mother and younger sister went to live with her my mother's elderly parents, my mother was helping with her mother who was becoming increasingly ill with emphysema. My sister was about 4. My older sister (by 10 years) offered to let me come to live with her and her family (dh + 2 children), so I did. A terribly generous gesture of my sister and her family, I need to tell her "Thank You" again.

I lived in Detroit 1972-1975, attending public high school. I graduated in 1975 and my sister and her family presented me with my first car, an adorable Bug! WOW! Can you say over-and-above?

Met my first dh in Sept of '75 (married 09/76) and he had a hobby of car restoration. He took my semi-rusty white bug(what doesn't get rusty in Michigan?) and made it all brand new and shiney candy apple red. It was a mighty fine looking vehicle and I loved that thing to death. (Googled the picture, can't believe I couldn't come up with ONE picture of my first car!!) He restored several other cars we had over the years...candy apple red. It was an "easy color to paint", he said.

My bug died a polite death(while on my watch), I locked bumpers with a brand new car on a busy road in rush hour. The bug had nothing in the front trunk, and it caved mercilessly. I stole her pride. I traded that car to my then BIL where it lived out the rest of her days, I never really wanted to hear the "rest of her story."

What was your first car?

15 comments:

Tanya said...

Cute little car! I never owned my own car until my son went to kindergarten! Had the driver's liscense but didn't need a car until I had to drive the kids to the doctor's office or to friend's houses. If I could, I'd love to have a little red car!

Tanya Brown said...

Oh, my; what memories. Poignant and good.

A bug sounds like a fun car to go tooling around in, a good car for a young woman driving around Michigan with the wind blowing through her hair.

My first car? A four cylinder Mustang II, baby blue with bad shocks. I was terrible at maintenance so it gave better than it got. When I was twenty I heartlessly sold it for $500, bought a one-way bus ticket to California, and never looked back.

Leah Spencer said...

My first car... is my current car. A 2000 black 4Runner. A little over 50,000 miles, hoping to keep it for another 5-10 years. Eh, if gas prices don't kill it first. ;)

To the mustang Tanya, my sister has a friend that has a 1960-something mustang with a very powerful engine. If she's not careful and gases up too quickly in a parking lot, it'll set off alarms on modern cars. :P

Erika Jean said...

A POS Oldsmobile. Remember there was no ceiling so i had all my friends write on it with sharpies! lol

Elaine Adair said...

OH my - I went off to college in 1960 in a TR-3 convertible, thinking all kids had cars like this. Silly me. But it wasn't MY car - it was Dad's!

My OWN first car was a -- don't laugh -- '49 something or other, with the floor so rusted out, that one day, after spending a bunch of money at the butcher, I put the meat under the seat, and when I got home, it had gone through the floor and was gone! Oh boy, those were the days! LOL

Swany said...

well my first ride was a Targa 1996? black mo-ped.. it took me around the world!

then the taurus, just for like a month... did we roll that all the way past 99999999999

then my first official car! that you and dad bought me was a 1998 VW beetle! 330,000 miles later... IT'S STILL KICKING!

and now i own a bmw r-71 motorcycle that's just plain badass!

love you mom! talk about all the wagons we had!

atet said...

The first one I had to drive (didn't really OWN it -- was still in my parents' names) was a 1984 Renault Alliance. Her name was Hazel and we made jokes about my "toaster" on wheels (alliance, appliance -- yuck, yuck). I got her becuase my parents were offered $500 for her when they went to trade her in. I was turning 16 in another three weeks so they simply kept her and "gave" her to me.

She wasn't much to look at -- but oh my the stories she could tell about my junior/sr. year in high school and my freshman year of college. Forbidden trips to the mall (too far), a trip to Cinncinnati my mother still doesn't know much about (better for her that way), and the laughter. She was getting too expensive to repair by the end of my freshan year and so we sold her and I got my first VW (Golf) -- but I do miss that car. And the gas mileage. I think I got something like 40 mpg in that beast.

Jules said...

The first car my name was on, we still have. I drove it yesterday. It is a 96 Ford Contour. It has 140,000 miles on it, and will be replaced in the next couple of months (with the dreaded minivan. But what else can a woman with four kids, three in car seats drive?)

The first car I drove was a plymouth reliant K car. You had to turn off the air conditioning to turn left. Otherwise, you did not have enough power. And I also drove a full sized dodge ram van in high school. I could drive myself plus seven friends in that thing. It had a big engine, and now I hate driving an underpowered car.

Marla said...

My first car?! Well, the first one that I chose, I bought and had my name on the title....How embarrassing.....My kids were 9 & 10! It was my Ford Aerostar Van!

Rian said...

My first car was a 1972 MGB-GT. How I loved that car. I reluctantly traded it in (it died). I've had a string of cars since, and like to think there's a little spirit of my MG in my cars today. Wierd, I know.

just me said...

I love that bug, my first car was to be a powder blue bug, but in 1990, that wasn't considered a cool car in my world so I told my dad I would pass, well, then I had to buy my own car..it was a 1989 Oldsmobile Seira 2 dr, that now sits in my barn, because I am so attached to it. My DH asked me the other day what I planned to do with it as it is taking up a whole section fo the barn..I think he was hinting of getting rid of it..lol..but so far I don't feel the need to sell the first set of wheels that gave me my freedom!! I am now on my second car, a Ford Explorer, I like the SUV but don't think I am really that attached to this one!! Good thing as we don;t need another car stored in the barn!!

Mama Spark said...

My first casr was a 1969 Toyota Celica. I loved that car. I had never driven a stick until I drove it off the lot! I love stick shift cars to this day!!

dee said...

My first car was a 1968 VW bug-bright shiney red-cost me $1800. and I had to finance it I was just out of high school making $45. a week as a salesgirl. 2 years later I bought myself a shiny red MGB convertable for $2400-I drove that car until my son was born in 1984 and cried when we sold it to raise cash for our first house. snif...snif..still missing that pretty baby. Fun times though!

Susan Freebery said...

Ahhhh, my first car was a Pontiac Ventura, three speed on the column, and had a "spray paint paint job". It was a 1971, I believe, and I payed $400 for it. My dream car had always been.....drum roll please... a VW Bug, but I had to settle on the Ventura. Cut ahead 25 years and I finally got my VW Bug. I adore it and won't trade it in or upgrade. No, it isn't the "dream Bug" because it is a 1999, but close enough. She and I will be together for a very long time.

Unknown said...

A 72 pumpkin colored Vega was my first car. Not my choice, my dad bought it then gave it to me later. It had no AC and that was a big draw back in my commute from Arlington to Dallas. The only person who would car pool with me was a friend who also had a Vega. We used to burn the clutches out of those things every 6 months or so due to traffic jams.