One of my classmates was driving back to visit his relatives in Ohio on a long weekend and asked if I wanted to accompany him and share the driving. It just so happened that my dad bought a newer car that week and offered me his old one.
The car was a 1953 Buick Roadmaster and had supposedly just been overhauled. But on the return trip to New Haven I made it as far as Carlisle, Pennsylvania when the motor threw a rod. I had the car towed to a lot and hitchhiked the rest of the way back to Yale carrying a lemon meringue pie that my mom had made for me (obviously one of my favorite desserts).
In case you are interested it was worth the trip just for the pie. It ended up it would have cost more to repair the car than it was worth so I opted to buy a 53 Ford as it made life bearable having a car. There were not many places to park a car at Yale though and I accumulated a large stack of parking tickets, some of which I ended up paying about 18 months later after a few threats of disciplinary action from my squadron commander in Korea.
