Thursday, December 12, 2013

Kickin' It Day 13-A First...

Today for the Kickin' It Old Skool Blog-A-Thon, we are sharing
A FIRST!
And the first thing that came to mind for me to share is my first car!
I am an only child (aka-spoiled daddy's girl!), and even though I know (and knew)  my parents had financial struggles, they still managed to provide me with pretty much everything I wanted (except for a dirt bike...it was the one time I remember my mom putting her foot down and saying "no way"...otherwise I'm pretty sure my dad would have found a way to get me one! I even had a little pony for awhile, lol!)
Anyway, although I wasn't (yet...?!) asking for or expecting a car, on Jan. 8, 1976, my 16th birthday,  my parents picked me up at school from cheerleading practice, and as we drove up our street and neared our house, this is what suddenly came into view, sitting all wrapped up in a big pink bow on our front yard...

see my happy face behind the wheel?!

Yep. A beautiful, bright "Lime Twist" green with white pinstripes, 383 under the hood, glasspack muffler, already a classic 1969 Dodge Charger....!!!!! ( I still *squee* a little inside seeing this photo!)
Oh yeah, AND with a CB, baby!  My handle was "Strawberry Babe"...a reference to my hair color!
Did I mention that I did not yet have my drivers license...only my learners permit? AND that even though my dad started taking me out around age 10 to empty retail parking lots on Sundays when the stores were closed (yeah, way back when!) to teach me to drive, I managed to fail the test the first...AND second times?! But anyway...back to THE CAR! I got pretty darn popular with guys who never gave me a second thought much less look when I started driving THIS baby to high school a few weeks later! I also quickly learned what size my engine was (that's the 383 part above, pretty impressive, I also quickly learned!) and also soon got pulled over for having such loud mufflers, so off they came, much to the dismay of many of those new "fans" of "mine"! I later found out that my mom was pretty against the idea of me having such a "hot rod" car, but my dad called the shots about 99.9% of the time in my parents relationship, so daddy's girl got the kick ass car he wanted her to have! (which cost them a mere $700, I'm told!) In has since occurred to me that it's really kind of weird that my dad would have chosen to get such a flashy, "bad ass" kind of car for me, as he was always SUPER OVER THE TOP protective of me growing up...which I "blamed" on me bring an only child plus the fact that he had been a police officer so knew all kinds of terrible things that could possibly happen, because in that line of work, he had seen things most people couldn't even imagine...(and now as a parent myself, I totally "get" his intense worry for my safety!)...so it now it really seems to me an odd choice for a first car for a young girl! But I'm not complaining, I adored that car and the attention it got me and I cannot tell you how many times over the years I have wished I still had it! Sad to say though,  met its far too early demise about 4 years later when I was an idiot and married my first husband who along with not being husband material at the time also basically ran that car into the ground driving it like a racecar driver, and knew zip about cars but thought he did and screwed up a major repair he attempted to do on it, which was then way too expensive to get fixed correctly, so it got sold to some lucky bastard "as is" for a few hundred bucks...*sigh*/grrrr!!! I saw a story on the news a few weeks ago about an adult son who spent about 10 years trying to track down his dad's first car-a classic "muscle car", from decades before that he had sold but always pined for...he miraculously found it, in perfect restored condition, bought it and gave it to him for some milestone birthday all those years later. *BIG SIGH* I can't help wondering where this/"my" beauty is today...I only hope in the hands of someone who worships her like I SHOULD HAVE back then and totally would now...and not in pieces in a bunch of other restored Dodge Chargers or worse, at the bottom of a pile of twisted, rusting, forgotten metal in some auto junkyard!

So that's MY FIRST to share with you today.
I have had literally dozens of cars since then, and although I have never been a "gear-head" or really cared much about WHAT I drove as long as I had a safe, affordable car, I have to admit that this first car of mine first car the best car I have had throughout my entire life...so far!  ;)

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
Happy Me, Laurie.

4 comments:

  1. Great post, Laurie and that is such a cool car. Definitely memorable and I love the story you wove around it. Hope you have a great weekend too!

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  2. oh yeah, baby. I had a friend who had a early 70s Dodge Charger (black) and we used to go cruising in it every Saturday night! Oh man...thank you for the great story and the prompt to my own flood of memories! :D

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  3. That is SO awesome!!! I'm just beaming at you and your first. I can only imagine the thrill of this baby! What a delight. Thank you for sharing this first!

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