Friday, April 3, 2009

Article #49 My First Car


I know we all remember the stories that our grandparents told us of their youth without an automobile. They had to walk three miles to school in all kinds of weather, and uphill both ways. My grandmother never had a family car, but would walk or get a ride with someone when she wanted to go anywhere. When her son got his first job, she taught herself how to drive his car in the sagebrush of rural Utah. Later, he would supply her with his used vehicle when he purchased a new car. Finally, she had her own transportation. (Photo above of my aunt Ethel, her husband to be Sonny with his Dad's car in front of my grandma's house in Silver City.)

Modern teens avoid walking at all costs––they either have friends or parents or older siblings who chauffeur them. As a teenager, I shared the family car (on the right the family car and me as an A&W car hop) with my widowed mom. Dropping her off at her job in order to be able to drive to my ballet lessons and other activities, I always picked her up promptly from her work. Walking to high school, during college I was lucky enough to have a bike. The only problem was I no longer lived in the mild climate of California. It was a real shock that first winter day at BYU riding my bike on snow. Many days, I walked to classes rather than sliding around on the ice with my two-wheeler. 

When I graduated from college, I was able to buy my first car. With my first fulltime job, I bought my own automobile. What an exciting event. I was now a responsible adult as a teacher at BYU. Thrilled to be able to make monthly loan payments for my used Ford Fairlane (photo on left), I felt I had arrived. Though a real gas guzzler, it had four doors and an automatic shift that made it a lot easier to drive. Fuel only costs a few cents/gallon in those days, 

My husband’s first car was a 1952 used Chevy. He describes it as brown and ugly. Nicknamed the Tan Can, it did have a radio and four doors but wasn’t sporty at all. As a junior in high school, he got it from his dad’s business where he helped out before and after school. With wheels now, my hubby could drag Main Street with his friends and head to the local teen hangout-the A&W Root Beer Drive Inn (in Texas). This same car would take him to college a few years later.

8 comments:

  1. My mother, who grew up in rural New Brunswick, saw her first car around 1912. Her uncle, who'd just bought the car, drove by my mother's one-room school house. The teacher let the children run to the windows to see tes car going by. Guess it was a most exciting event!

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  2. I just traded in the first car that I bought after college...Wolfie. Loved him. Had to switch out for a mini-van, but this car served me well - a 1996 VW Passat. I keep an eye out for it on the road and hope it's serving someone else and making another family happy now!

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  3. That Ford of yours - niiiiice! Don't you wish you still had it!!

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  4. I remember my first car, too. And it might as well have been a Rolls, I was so pleased to finally have wheels. As a kid, I walked everywhere.

    I enjoyed this trip down memory lane.

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  5. I remember my grandfather saying that we'd better get out and blow on the tires [after making a turn].
    My father sold Packards.

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  6. Nice story, Lin. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I haven't known very many teenagers who didn't want a car, from my generation all the way up to my own children. This post makes me smile fondly.

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  7. I love these photos with your cars. I wish I'd kept a better record of our cars, too.

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  8. Oh..I walked a lot and used my bike, but my first car was a used 1966 Mustang...I loved that car and since I learned on a stick shift, it wasn't a problem to drive...sigh...

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