Week 27 - Cars and Transport
My family lived out in the country. A car was essential a link to society. My parents were Ford people. So most of the cars that spent time in our driveway were Fords.
The first car I remember was a green 56 Ford sedan. I hunted the Internet looking for a picture that came close to the family car. This was the closest I could find. Sometime in the early 1960s, my family bought a new car, a Ford station wagon that mom used to drive back and forth to work and to haul all us kids around. I have no clue what the color of it was, perhaps a light blue. In any case, the green sedan became my Dad's car.
Living in Phoenix, summer time temperatures get mighty hot. My parents took the station wagon into Phoenix and had an after market air conditioning unit installed. It sat under the dash in the middle of the front. It wasn't near as efficient as today's factory installed air conditioning. I believe most of the cars my parents bought after that came with factory installed air conditioning.
The farm was just under a mile from our house. The Gates' boys were expected to work on the farm from a fairly young age; my brother "Gatesy" and my cousin Herbie drove tractors in the fields and ran the farm equipment necessary to harvest the alfalfa and make hay. I can still picture them picking up the bales of hay and loading them onto a wagon. When his legs were just long enough to reach the pedals, my brother was given an old pick-up to drive back and forth to the "ranch". Technically we wasn't old enough to drive on the public roads; but the road between our house and the farm was dirt with little traffic. My mom was very happy about it, but Daddy had the final saw on Gatesy's truck.
When my oldest sister Elaine got her driver's license, she was given the old 56 Ford Sedan to drive. When she was a senior in high school, she and my sister Shirley drove the car back and forth to school. One day they were turning a corner and the passengers door flew open. This was in the days before seat belts. We were lucky that Shirley didn't fall out. Later on Dad bought a used car for Elaine, it was a blue Ford Fairlane. One day Elaine had a small fender bender with the car. Dad replaced the front panel with one from a wrecked red Fairlane. The car stayed two toned for many years.
When I got my drivers license many years later, the two toned Fairlane became my car. The first day I drove it to school, I was pulled over by a police officer. As I pulled out my temporary driver's license, the office made a comment about my driving skills - or perhaps the lack there of.
My boyfriend Van was embarrassed to be seen in the car. One Christmas he took it Fairlaine to Earl Scheib's and had it repainted in a metallic blue for $ 99.95.
When I graduated from high school my parents bought me a brand new 1972 Chevy Malibu. It was the prettiest copper exterior and cream colored interior. I loved that car. Unfortunately I totaled the car while I was in Monterrey, California. The car and I took a slight tumble down an embankment.
I was young and stupid. My parents had paid for the insurance. The didn't pay for collision, only liability. This taught me 2 very valuable lessions - the value of good insurance and the value of a good vehicle. I was without a vehicle of my own for several years.
In 1975 I was stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland. My husband and I were living in an apartment in Glen Burnie, MD. Bruce was working on the base, I was working offsite at an annex located near the Baltimore-Washington airport. Since we only had 1 car, Bruce took the car to the base and I caught a ride to work with two office mates who lived near by. It worked out well until they were discharges and I had to find another ride.
So I started riding with another office mate. One snowy winter morning, I must have been a few minutes late. I waited outside in the cold for the longest time and my ride didn't show. When I called to find out what was the story, he said he came by and I wasn't there so he left. I was so pissed and I realized that I coudn't count on other people to get me to work. So from then on Bruce would drive me to work and then head south to the base. When I finished work, I would catch the bus from the annex to the base where I would meet up with Bruce for the drive home.
The first car I remember was a green 56 Ford sedan. I hunted the Internet looking for a picture that came close to the family car. This was the closest I could find. Sometime in the early 1960s, my family bought a new car, a Ford station wagon that mom used to drive back and forth to work and to haul all us kids around. I have no clue what the color of it was, perhaps a light blue. In any case, the green sedan became my Dad's car.
The farm was just under a mile from our house. The Gates' boys were expected to work on the farm from a fairly young age; my brother "Gatesy" and my cousin Herbie drove tractors in the fields and ran the farm equipment necessary to harvest the alfalfa and make hay. I can still picture them picking up the bales of hay and loading them onto a wagon. When his legs were just long enough to reach the pedals, my brother was given an old pick-up to drive back and forth to the "ranch". Technically we wasn't old enough to drive on the public roads; but the road between our house and the farm was dirt with little traffic. My mom was very happy about it, but Daddy had the final saw on Gatesy's truck.When my oldest sister Elaine got her driver's license, she was given the old 56 Ford Sedan to drive. When she was a senior in high school, she and my sister Shirley drove the car back and forth to school. One day they were turning a corner and the passengers door flew open. This was in the days before seat belts. We were lucky that Shirley didn't fall out. Later on Dad bought a used car for Elaine, it was a blue Ford Fairlane. One day Elaine had a small fender bender with the car. Dad replaced the front panel with one from a wrecked red Fairlane. The car stayed two toned for many years.
My boyfriend Van was embarrassed to be seen in the car. One Christmas he took it Fairlaine to Earl Scheib's and had it repainted in a metallic blue for $ 99.95.
When I graduated from high school my parents bought me a brand new 1972 Chevy Malibu. It was the prettiest copper exterior and cream colored interior. I loved that car. Unfortunately I totaled the car while I was in Monterrey, California. The car and I took a slight tumble down an embankment.
I was young and stupid. My parents had paid for the insurance. The didn't pay for collision, only liability. This taught me 2 very valuable lessions - the value of good insurance and the value of a good vehicle. I was without a vehicle of my own for several years.
In 1975 I was stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland. My husband and I were living in an apartment in Glen Burnie, MD. Bruce was working on the base, I was working offsite at an annex located near the Baltimore-Washington airport. Since we only had 1 car, Bruce took the car to the base and I caught a ride to work with two office mates who lived near by. It worked out well until they were discharges and I had to find another ride.
So I started riding with another office mate. One snowy winter morning, I must have been a few minutes late. I waited outside in the cold for the longest time and my ride didn't show. When I called to find out what was the story, he said he came by and I wasn't there so he left. I was so pissed and I realized that I coudn't count on other people to get me to work. So from then on Bruce would drive me to work and then head south to the base. When I finished work, I would catch the bus from the annex to the base where I would meet up with Bruce for the drive home.
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