Describe your first car(s), where you drove it and with whom?
My dad was probably wise in not letting me get my drivers license until my Senior Year. I was given his powder blue Lincoln Versailles in 1982,. I would imagine it was a '77 - that is when they first came out.. It had a vinyl rooftop, velour-like seats and an 8 track player. We called it the Pimpmobile. I was half-thrilled to have the freedom and half mortiied by the size and completely afraid to parallel park it! I recall driving mostly to school and work, but one weekend I got the courage to drive from my house in Clairemont to my old house in Vista (about 40 miles) with my best friend Ruth. We drove up to my old house and my first impression was how much SMALLER it looked than when I was a small child, and then just recalling that I had not seen that house since I was 6, and how "dumpy" it was now - the owners had a "junk yard" of sorts in the back yard. Not at all like I remembered it. Afterwards, we snatched some oranges off someone's tree and we then drove to the local mall (El Camino Real) and took my brand new visa debit card and treated us to a lunch (and my first paid tip) at a "French Cafe". We really thought we were so grown up and livin' large!
A few years later when I was 19 or 20 I'm pretty certain I traded it in for my first and ONLY NEW car. I financed a red Nissan Pick Up truck, I can't remember exactly, but I think it was priced about $5.5K. (the NO frills package) Manual door locks, windows etc, vinyl seats, and an am/fm radio. No Air - which isn't a horrible thing in San Diego 90% of the time. That truck took me on countless adventures camping in the mountains, trips to the desert, site-seeing in San Franscisco, Hollywood, and Las Vegas to name a few. I drove that sucker into the ground, completely abusing it have no idea about things like "oil changes" etc, Along the way I managed a few tickets and fender benders in too. That truck holds the memories of some of the most fun and carefree times of my life. 48 hours on the weekend and a tank of gas- take me away little red truck!
August 1986. It was a cloudy day in San Diego, so we went looking for Sun and ended up in Arizona. We found sun alright. August in Arizona - with no air conditioning and vinyl seats! Yee Haw!
Aug 1986 Camping in Lake Arrowhead with Ruth Henke
This picture reminded me of a very funny story that I'll save for another post, but I also remember driving around the mountianside to get to Big Bear Lake and we were afraid the boat would fly out, so Ruth rode in the back of the truck inside the boat... I'm sure this was NOT a legal thing to do :)