52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Cars

Week 3: Cars. What was your first car? Describe the make, model and color, but also any memories you have of the vehicle. You can also expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.

This challenge runs from Saturday, January 15, 2011 through Friday, January 21, 2011.


My first car? I had a love/hate relationship with that thing. Love? Kind of a gift from Daddy. Well, he didn't give it to me. He sold it to me for $10. It was four years old and I was So Grateful! Grateful that I didn't have car payments to make. I kind of didn't like the color but that was a trivial thing. 1970 Ford Fairlaine 500. Mine was a pukey pea green close to this.

Mine was a four door with a black interior. I put an 8-track player in it and ja ja ja jaaaamed to work everyday. Please note that I didn't have a lot of 8-track tapes. Playing mostly The Tavares, my favorite tracks over and over again. Too Late, It Only Takes A Minute, Remember What I Told you To Forget and Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel. Maybe New Birth, Dream Merchant or It's Been a Long Time, Stylistics... You get it. You might be a youngster and you don't get it. LOL

Oh, my goodness, this is bringing back great memories!!! I was just going to do a quick love/hate. While I'm reminiscing, it reminds me of the cost of gas! I'm remembering about $0.85. Timeframe I'm talking was from about the fall of 74 to summer of 75. OPEC oil embargo, lines at the gas station. Youngsters also have to remember that we weren't in so much of a hurry then. We complained a little about the high cost of gas but otherwise life was pretty good. Waiting in line at the gas station was an opportunity to socialize... with the other people in line. And there was still plenty of excitement going on in my beloved Youngstown. I left the following year. Oh yeah, the love/hate and back to the Ford.

OK Hate. This car caused me to never consider ever owning another Ford again, and I haven't, currently driving my 7th car. Back then, I was considering that I just happened to be the stuckee of one 'defective vehicle'. About two or three years ago when I was charting my vehicles (yes, I have them all imaged), there stirred up a discussion of our first one. An older and wiser gentleman explained that some of the manufacturers were building vehicles 'well enough' in the 70s. Mine had some kind of electrical problem that I, nor my mechanic had ever found. Whatever this electrical problem was would cause me to have to get a jump frequently, let's say about once or twice a month. The battery, alternator and regulator had all been checked out. What's left? Wiring in the steering column and wiring in the firewall.

Well, time was quickly passing by during that year. I decided to go into the military and had to decide what to do with Betsy. My first consideration was to get her rewired, get some minor bodywork done and get her painted black. She would have been beautiful! Circumstances changed my mind. For one, the transmission started to slip. Then about a month before I left for basic training, some speed demon hit me. More the transmission than the accident changed my mind to have her restored. I also had nobody trustworthy to leave her with. Somebody who would accept the money I gave them, get the work done and not drive her as if she were their own. Nobody. So about a week before I left home, I sold her. You know what's funny? The guy I sold her to had a long way to go to school, one of my classmates' brother. When I saw David at our 30^th reunion, he said his bro drove Betsy for several years with no problems.


52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin are some genealogy blog prompts to document your personal genealogy. There are 52 in all, one for each week of the year. Amy says,

"I hope you like it and do take the time to write down the details of your own life.

Please make this a fun event. Don't get upset if you don't do all 52 weeks. That was never the intention."