The color below is a bit off, but the model is right. We had a red 1953 Ford. Dad got it from Wilford Haynie. He was about blind. Hi glasses were thick and you could only see the pupil of his eye in them if he was looking at you. He quit driving and dad took the car on his bills. I ended up using the car the most. I drove it to school. I was in High School at Centrauri.
One night some of my associates and I went to Alamosa and were driving on top of the levees along the Rio Grande. We hit a deep rut in the dike and broke the motor mounts. The engine slid forward and the fan closed off the fins on the radiator. We found a pole and pushed the engine back in place and then took pocket knives and straightened out all the fins on the radiator. I drove it for months after that.
Mom took the car and went to Albuquerque and slammed on the brakes at a street light. The engine moved forward and closed all the fins on the radiator. She continued to drive it and got the engine hot. She put water in it and cracked a head. The car was hauled back to Manassa on a truck.
Before Kent went to VietNam he bought a new car. An early 1970s American Motors Hornet. Green. We used it as a family car while Kent was gone. I was driving it in Alamosa one day and failed to notice someone that had stopped for a person in a crosswalk and crashed into another car. Kent found out after he arrived home from VietNam.
When I was in high school I bought a 1962 Chevrolet Impala with a 327 v-8. It ran fairly well, and I was in the process of doing modifications on it.
In the course of stupidity I managed to have the steering wheel come off in my hands while I was driving to Simeon Dunn's funeral. I didn't make it that day to the funeral.
After my broken ribs healed I took the engine and drivetrain out of the Chevrolet and put it in the 1953 Ford. It was a strange machine. The speedometer only showed 120 MPH. I had a tachometer on the engine. The car was doing about 120 when the tachometer read about 5600 RPM. I drove it one day to 7000 RPM. I later wrecked the Ford by driving too fast around a corner and slid into a rock; I was going about 30 MPH. That was the end of that.
Donnie had a 1965 Cadillac that he let me use. It was a gas guzzler and it started to burn oil. I parked it by the garage. Someone stole some of the parts off the engine while it was sitting. Dad eventually sold it to a junk yard.
I left home for a while and worked in Farmington, New Mexico for a while. When I was there I bought a 1964 El Camino.
I was out driving crazy one day and sideswiped a telephone pole. Someone in Farmington offered me a 1965 El Camino in trade for the one I had because he wanted the frame. I make the swap. The 1965 El Camino had a 283 V-8. A farmer in the area offered to give me a 427 if I would put the 283 in his car and I could have the 427. I made the swap. It was a learning experience. I put lots of extras on the engine and it would accelerate quickly. I spun a rod bearing on it. Then I went on a mission and dad sold it.
When I returned from my mission my dad had acquired another El Camino that belonged to Donald Jarvis. I had that for the next several year. I sold it to a junk yard when I left Provo to go to Greenville Texas after I graduated from BYU.
While I was at BYU I met Jeanette Cheshire and married her. She had the nifty old 1952 Ford Galaxy. That was our family car. We were in the process of trying to improve it when...
a man in a little pickup ran a red light and hit the Ford broadside.
While we were in Greenville I bought a Chevy pickup. When we lived in Littleton several years later I sold it as junk. I saw somebody driving it after that.
Another car the we acquired in Greenville was this Chevrolet station wagon. I hated this car. I called it the gutless dog. It served our purposes, but it did not perform well. We sold it to a lady for $200 when we lived in Littleton.
Our family had grown. We needed more room. I bought a Ford Clubwagon from John Vincent. We used this van for a few years.
One day the van left us stranded in Salt Lake City. We bought the van below to replace it. It was not quite a replacement, but it was easier on gasoline and was easier to drive. Anita and Debra were in the van when a man ran a stop sign and pulled in front of them. Ouch.
Jeanette and I bought two new vehicles. A 1999 Saturn SL and a 1999 Ford Ranger pickup. We had the Saturn for only a few months when Jeanette and I were heading to the Denver temple and were just a couple blocks from home, when a woman pulled across the highway in front of us. We totaled our new Saturn. We had to deal with Allstate Insurance. That was the most painful part of the whole ordeal. The same was true with dealing with the Ford Aerostar accident too.
We bought another Saturn to replace our blue Saturn. This one was metalic silver grayish kinda color. We gave that car to Craig and Brina as a wedding gift.
We bought a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis so we could travel in a little more comfort. We will probably still be making car payments when the car is dilapidated and retired.
And our last purchase is a Chevrolet Aveo5. It is OK as a commuter, but I would not like to take too many long trips in it.
6 comments:
We haven't had very good luck with cars, Larry. I would consider mass transit if it were reliable and cheap. Where we live, it's neither.
I am able to tele-commute. That solves part of the problems.
I could probably say I have had as many dogs in our married life as Larry has had experiences with cars! OH MY! I would really have to tax our memory on vehicles if I was to reflect on ours... which I am sure Don could remember. Thanks for sharing some of the memories which I was able to reflect on while going thru your post, Larry.
I remember getting to sit in Uncle Larry's lap and stear his El Camino, but for whatever reason, I thought it was black and I also believe that was just before Arlo was born? My memory fails me!
I will never forget the first time I drove by myself. I made a big U turn in front of the house and crashed into the back end of some people that were visiting Boyd and Elma. That was with the Pontiac Cheiftain that Dad bought for me from Troy Sowards. I'll never forget how the car in front of me jumped and moved over.
The next car I owned was the one that Larry borrowed and then I burned up.
After I was Home from my mission, I bought the green Hornet. The payments were just over a hundred dollars and my pay was just under a hundred. Mom and Dad made up the difference. It was the car that I rolled going over LaVeta pass.
My next car was the yellow AMC station wagon. It cost too much too. Bonnie took it for a while. After I married, it was our family car.
The first car that we drove for a long period of time was our red Chevy Impala. My memory isn't as good as Larry's. I don't know what year it was.
When Betty and I married, we were using a borrowed car. We were so excited to by our first family car, a little blue Toyota Tercel. Then there was a Plymouth, a Chrystler New Yorker, Betty's mother's car, and our van.
After not driving for 25 years, I was excited about buying my own vehicle. I bought a pickup from David. I got to tow that thing more than I drove it.
I finally got my Nissan SE Extended cab pickup. When I got it, it was shiny and new. Now, Betty and her Dad are concerned that I am going to have to get myself a pair of goggles when the body rusts away. I am too attached to it to get rid of it. It runs well and it gives me a sense of independence that I missed for many years.
Cars have been the trial of my life. We had several. I never had a car of my own until Arlo bought a car from Boyd Brady It was my thing to always be borrowing cars from you kids. After our mission I bought the Honda Civic from my boss at the library. The only nice car I ever had was the car Ward bought after our mission. That was the end.
The first time I drove and got caught I managed to get the Volkswagen pickup to go in circles in front of the house. Dad saw me and came to investigate. I saw him and ducked down in the front. He pulled me out and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was driving. He told me to go to church. (I was playing hookey)
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