As a teenager in high school, I was "forced" to drive the family car...an old State Police cruiser that I thought was just the most awful thing I had ever been subjected to. (Thankfully, I didn't see the 'need for speed', cause that car could flat out fly!)
In my first year of college, I didn't have a car. At the beginning of my sophomore year (1972), I started asking for a car. Now, being an only child back when the economy was booming, I usually got what I asked for. What made it even easier for me was the fact that my Grandfather sold cars on the side and he had access to auto auctions, which he attended almost weekly. Once I convinced my Mom and Dad that I really needed a car and they wouldn't have to transport me back and forth to Terre Haute, my Dad started going with Grandpa to look for the car of my dreams...a 1968 Cougar XR-7.
The reason I was fixated on that car was I had a HUGE crush on a boy (Danny Burns...still remember him FONDLY! ) who had a beautiful blue 1968 Cougar. I loved him...AND THAT CAR!!! I told my Dad to be on the lookout for a '68 Cougar...didn't matter what color. (THAT was big of me, huh?). He said he would.
Weeks went by with no luck. My Dad tried to talk me into some other car. I wasn't having it, I guess...nothing else would do. But as time went on with no luck, I guess I started wavering because one weekend I came home to find a 1968 Mustang sitting in our yard.
White. YUCK! And it was kinda "rough around the edges". Didn't look nearly as nice as the one shown here. But, I didn't throw an "only child" trantrum. I was like, "Oh yeah, that is nice. Thank you.", but my heart wasn't in it. (I would give my eye teeth to have that sucker now!!!!)
I will never forget what happened next. My younger cousin David was there and was grinning from ear to ear. My dad said, "I can see you don't really like it...maybe you will like what is in the garage better", and with that, he flung open the garage door to show me what was inside...A GLEAMING, SHINY, BEAUTIFUL GREEN 1968 MERCURY COUGAR XR-7!!!
(Double Click on any picture for a better view)
What I saw looked as good as the one in the first picture. My cousin and my Dad had it SPARKLING!
{Mona, if you are reading this (and I know you are because I just sent you the link) wasn't this the weekend you met the lovely and talented Harold Morton Oshrey, III...or "HAD" as he was so fondly referred to?}
{PAUSE PLAYLIST OVER ON RIGHT BEFORE VIEWING VIDEO}
My COOOOOOOGAR (as she was fondly known) was even better looking. She had a chrome luggage rack on the back. And the control panel looked like an airplane interior with switches you flipped up and down...I can't remember what they were for, though. And those headlights that opened and closed were so cool. And the turnlights in the rear were intermittent from right to left (I think).
Man, I LOVED THAT CAR. What happened to it is too painful to relate. Let's just say I never got over it.
I couldn't get this picture to scan right. If you double click on it, you can see the front of my baby over on the right. (That's me...back in the day)
So how about you all? Let's hear about "your first car". It is fun strolling down memory lane and some of you won't have nearly so far to stroll to get there!
11 comments:
Sue:
How well I remember '68 Cougars! I met a girl in 1969 and fell hard for her and she had a '68 yellow Cougar with black interior. It was her dad's car, but, she could drive it when she wanted.
I bought my first car on July 3, 1969. It was a 1965 Chevy Impala SS, yellow with black interior and a black vinyl top. That car was so hot! I met my girlfriend a month later and we had a ball with that car. I wish I still had it. So many fun and pleasant memories.
I drove my dad's 1964 black Mustang and loved that car. I wrote my dad a note asking him if I could have it forever. (He still has the note)He said it was too old and failing so got rid of it (boo hoo) He got me a 1973 Pinto when I started college- it was owned by another woman for just a few months before she had to move overseas so it was like new. It was green-more like pea soup- with a white vinyl roof that had a sunroof but it was a PINTO! (ew) The color was so distinct that everyone recognized me when I drove by. The hardest part was that it had a manual transmission that I had never driven and my dad was rather rusty at it himself. I can remember having him take me to the mall lot to learn to drive and I cried and cried because he had no patience to teach me something I could not learn quickly. When left on my own I figured out the clutch and shifting. I got a lot of use out of that car- selling it in 1982 just before my second son was born. I will have to see if I can dig up some pictures and do a post on this one of these days. Fun post!
What a great story. Love the Cougar! Because mom could not drive, I always drove the family car. When I first started driving it was a 1970's Chev. Caprice and must have been as long as a bus. It was a 2 door and the door was as long as most cars today!
What a great story! As for me, I drove the family car....a Dodge Dart.;(
Enjoyed reading your story. The American cars are so much more 'grander' than the British ones.
Sue! My first car was a used but very nice-shape 1967 WHITE Mustang! I dismayed over the WHITE, too..and, isn't it a kick that it was a gift from my grandfather, too?
Of course, I was about the only kid to NOT have her license yet BUT have a CAR!!
and OH YES< don't we wish we had those Mustangs again$$$!!!
You youngens were lucky to have such cars. I got to buy, and please note the word BUY the family car which was a 53 Chevy, that was in 1962. Between 1960 and 1962 I only got to borrow it. My dad was one of those who believed in getting every mile possible out of a car and took very good care of them. He bought a new 62 Chevy Impala, 4dr hardtop, 327, 300HP and I was stuck with the 115 horsepower "Blue Flame" teamed with a Powerglide automatic transmission but not for long.
That little 235cu soon became a 297cu with a 54 Vette dual carb system. It held it's own with the V-8 flatheads and some of the older V8 OHV. I split the manifold, put a set of dumpers on it which were wide open most of the time. LOL. I had it nosed and decked, added a few extra bullets to the grill, added some chrome bullets to the center of the wheel and to the lug nuts. A set of Caddy tail lights replaced the stock ones. The Caddy tail lights were long pointed types rather than the smooth rounded ones. LOL.
It served it's purpose well and the girls didn't complain too much about the age of the car. If they did, they didn't ride again. I paid for it and the insurance by cutting hay, cutting and putting up tobacco, milking cows and what ever other means I could find to make money. In the winter money came by working at Ram Collins Esso station pumping gas and washing cars.
I replaced it later with a 32 Chrysler Coach which I bought for $40 and it ran. It took a lot of work but it was a beauty with 8 coats of hand rubbed gold lacquer and eventually a 60 Olds engine with a six pack on top. The engine looked as if it had been dipped in chrome which was awesome. A nice set of 8in Street Slicks set it off. It also had a set of headers that when opened sounded like a huge airplane. The noise emitting from them was also known to break plate glass windows in the downtown where I lived. That lesson cost me $400 and only that much because the owner of the drugstore whose window was shattered by my reving up the hot rod was impressed with my honesty and only had me pay for part of the window.( I was there when he opened the next morning)
I gave the 53 to my uncle to replace the 63 Corvair Monza Spyder which was wrecked going to Florida for the spring race. It seems the the rear suspension had a tendency to break in those vehicles so I didn't get blamed for the wreck but he needed a car worse than I did.
The Chrysler coach was sold when I went into the military in 64.
There were a lot of good memories connected to that lil Chevy. Warm nights at the drive-in theater seem to come to mind even more than cruising tween the Texas Steer on the Kingsport Hwy and the Dutch Maid on the Jonesborough Hwy.(located in TN not Texas) Well, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.
As an added note, my late wife also had a baby blue with a white leather top Cougar when she was younger . Musta been something about those Cougars and the female hormones. Ya reckon?
Ticker, I loved your '53 Chev story! My dad had a '53 also, what a tank that thing was and it had "3 on the tree". He followed that up with a brand new '57 Chevy Bel Air. I still miss that car and I was only 7 when we got it! Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
Greg, I ran across a 53 Chevy the other day which was the same brown with cream top color as mine until I added some metallic paint to it after the nose and deck job. I have considered buying it and re-doing it to the stage I did my original, maybe a bit further by dropping the front end a bit and adding some air since Texas is no place to drive without air. It sure is tempting. The other half says I am experiencing my second childhood . LOL
Ticker and Greg P,
I have NO IDEA what you fellers were talking about, but that was the point of this post...bringing back good old memories!
Jim understood it all and could relate...especially to the part about paying for his first car by bailing hay and working at whatever he could find to do.
Ahh,,,good times, huh?
Yea Sue, the good times came after the weeks work was finished and you collected you money which was usually 8 bucks for a regular day and 10 bucks for a long day. Long day was from daylight to dark and a bit thereafter. Dinner time ( lunch for some )was free and it was more than enough. The table would literally swag in the middle there was so much food.
Come Saturday night we were cleaned up, slicked down and looking good and it was off to town unless we were lucky enough to have a date. Occasionally Friday night was open if Saturday was going to be a light day and then we usually would have a date. A movie and something to eat from one of the drive-in restaurants and then maybe a short stop along the way home at some secluded little place known only by a few select folks. Hahaha.
Now Sue, that was the good times.
Working on our cars took the tired away and a sweet thang made it all worth while. One thing about those days , most of us knew just how far we could go (which wasn't very far)and we dang knew the consequences of going too far and most of us were not ready for that road. Things like that were not a game as they are today and our expectations were certainly higher than most today. I also know that our memories are much sweeter to remember.
Hope Jim translated the details that you didn't understand.
Ahhh, those were the days!
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