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What kind of autos have I owned ?
Funny you should ask...
- The first car I owned was a 1960 Thunderbird. I bought it from a guy named Moses for
$20.00. I had great plans to fix it up. I towed it from where I worked to the Shadowdale
apartments where I lived. I had a friend (Dave Donaho) come and help me take it all apart,
I never got it all back together. It was still sitting in the parking lot when I moved.
- The first car I drove; '63 Volkswagen beetle, sky blue, my sister's bug. My brother
showed me the fine art of using a clutch.
- The first car I owned Buick LeSabre, '68 model if I recall. Land yacht. My mom bought it
through a friend for $500. It kept overheating, I replaced several thermostats and then
traded it in at a used car lot for a...
- Camero type muscle car. I had this car up until I almost got home from the dealer when I
wrecked it because it had no brakes. Then I had no car for a while.
- There was a beautiful candy apple red w/ white top Buick Skylark ('65) that my mom
bought from a friend of hers. It was supposed to be for me and/or my brother to drive, but
I never got to drive it. David ended up wrapping it around a tree first.
- Rode a ten speed bike a lot for a while.
- Bought a Town-Squire Station wagon for $50.00(us). It had a leak in the power steering
unit that required a little Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF - DOT3) to be added every
time the dang thing started making a racket. I had it for about a year when I totaled it
by hitting nothing. You total a car when the price to repair it is greater than the worth
of the car right ? Well I was driving home from the Cactus Club in Houston on the freeway
and had a flat. A tie-rod broke from the high speed shimmy of the flat, the front corner
of the car hit the freeway, the engine leapt into the radiator, etc... I had the hood up
and was assessing the radiator damage when the Pasadena police arrived and assessed the
situation themselves but that's another story.
- Bought a 56 Chevy station wagon ($150) from an acquaintance at San Jaciento Jr. College.
It was a good solid car as long as you added a little oil every now and then. One time I
didn't and she froze up. I left her in the access lane off the Southwest freeway. She
wasn't there when I went back. I last saw her near folded in half in a junkyard, I jumped
the fence, claimed my possessions, and didn't look back.
- Next, I bought a Ford (Fairlane ?) of about 68 vintage for $100(us). Bought it from
Herbee at Nelson Tool's, a machine shop I worked at. I rode that car a long time around
Houston, and it took me most of the way to Northwest Arkansas when I decided I was ready
for a real College. I put most of my belongings on the bus and loaded my guitar and a
backpack into the car and took off one night. Just as the sun was coming up over Oklahoma,
the alternator quit putting out enough juice to keep both the headlights and the engine
running. I made it about another hundred miles before she called it quits entirely. I
hitched to Rogers, and later came back and fixed the alternator with a friend of my moms.
I left that car outside of Fayettville on Rural Route 2 at Mel and Dave's place. It is
probably still there as a yard ornament. It was somewhere around 1975 when I was there.
- Big blue Chevy something from Bruce Amman ($75.00). You felt safe in this car, like you
were driving a tank. Left immobile in Dorm parking lot at the end of the semester.
- After school I moved back to Houston and bought my sisters car ($150.00), the blue VW
bug from way above. Volkswagen bugs are a unique experience that can't be readily
described. Mine was great until I got into a philosophical argument about whether the
future can be changed or not. I won the argument by spinning that car several times on the
freeway. I did change the outcome of the evening, and the outcome of that relationship
that very night. Some people might still argue that even that was preordained, but I ain't
buying it.
- Had a nice blue & white Buick I forget the model, but it was about '68 vintage. I
never got the title changed into my name. That turned out to be a good thing because the
last time I saw it it was parked on top of two brand new 280-Zs.
- Then I got a big green muscle car type of thing, GTO ? Big power plant. Another $100.00
car that I drove until it was used all up.
- And then I walked alot. I got my job at Chevron because it was within walking distance
of my apartment. I accepted the lower pay because the job was just temporary; until I
saved up enough for a car and a real job.
- Then I got a car with a name; "La Bamba". Chevy Impala, off white (very off).
probably '73 or '74. My room mate bought it for $100 and sold it to me for $150, thanks
Jimbo. It started with a screw driver because an aluminum "copy" key had broken
off in the ignition. This car was destined to go to others further down the car chain but
I don't think it ever made it.
- Volkswagen Rabbit. 1980 model ($1500.00). Fawn colored. Ran good, real hoppy for a long
time but finally succumbed due to what I surmised to be congenital wire chaffing.
- Toyota 1983 Celica. Was my wife's car. She bought it new before we got married, I ended
up paying for most of it after we got married.
Still got it and it runs great,
great power plant. Sold it for $600 cash, hope it is still running.
- 1993 Saturn($13,000.00); my first brand-new car ! Mid-night Blue, four speed. It is not
new anymore.
- Well, my car isn't new anymore, but my wife's car is. She got a 1999 Toyota Rav-4. The
kids say it's cool.
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