Re: * Nostalgia ~ Your first car ! *
MODEL YEAR 1956
MAKE Pontiac
YEAR YOU GOT IT 1965
DESCRIPTION 4dr sedan Pink over cream
OPTIONAL How old were you at the time ? 16
ADVENTURES
How I got it was a bit of an adventure..........
I was working about 100 hours a week at the neighborhood Standard Oil station, pumping gas and doing lube and oil jobs when they let me - the perfect job for an aspiring gearhead. It was fairly late in the evening (we closed at 11 pm!) and a fellow came limping in with this dirty, nasty looking, noisy old Pontiac. He said his wife had run off with the kids to Omaha, from their home in Oklahoma, and he'd gone and gotten her back, but that he didn't think the Pontiac would make it back to OK, and if someone would give him $10, they could have it. I handed him a $10 bill before anyone else could speak, and he handed me the title and the keys - and I was an owner! I drove it home that night and my dad hit the roof, he didn't think any 16 year old should have his own car, so he took the keys. A little later after they had gone to bed I snuck
out the back door with the extra set of keys I still had in my pocket, and since it didn't have any mufflers to speak of, I pushed it out of the driveway and rolled down the hill. I drove down to my girlfriends house and hung out with her for a while and then decided to cruise around a bit before driving home. By now it was about 1 am, and most of the stop lights were flashing, and there was very little traffic - which turned out to be my savior. I was heading down a backstreet - a long but gentle downhill, doing about 30 mph. The street "T"d at the intersection of a very busy road, and of course the light was red for me. I eased on the brakes - nothing! I tried the "e" brake - nothing! I tried pulling it down into low gear, and it felt like it went into neutral and sped up! By now my heart is really thumping and I'm getting really close to the intersection when all of a sudden the transmission hits low gear and about throws me thru the windshield, I make it around the corner - barely, running the red light, but there are no cars coming, so I'm OK. I drove home the remaining three blocks and crept into the driveway, but since it was uphill I had to run the motor all the way there - I couldn't coast in like I did when I left. Of course my dad was there watiting for me, and without a word he took the extra set of keys too.
It was about three months before I got them back - you think it isn't hard for a 16 year old to see his car sitting in the drive and not be able to even start it? When I finally got the keys back, I took it to work at the gas station and put on some mufflers, topped up the brake and trans fluid, put on a couple of new tires and cleaned it up and I had a nice car all thru highschool. It was loaded - even had A/C that worked!
Total investment - about $150................sold it for that same amount to a neighbor who's wife promptly totaled it. Nobody got hurt, but the car was gone.............. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif