Family cars past and present
SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 (MONDAY) – For pure trivia, you can’t beat an article on “cars I have driven, owned, or claimed.” Starting at the very first, here goes. These are the cars I’ve had something to do with, as far back as I can remember.
I’ve tried to find pictures on the web, and I found most of them. Two of them are presented in the color we owned. But I guess the pictures will do. I’ll mention our own colors as I go.
The first car I remember my father owning was a black Chevrolet from the early thirties or late twenties. It still had the boxy carriage body like most Sedans of that era. View image
My father made $10 per week during the depression, yet somehow he managed to buy a new black 1938 Chevrolet for around $700. View image He used that car until around 1950. When he did a brake job on it after having had it ten years, he discovered one of the rear wheels still had brand new brake shoes because the wheel cylinder had never worked. When I was around 9 years old, I used to sit on a front fender, pretending it was my horse, and sing at the top of my lungs. The lady next door complimented me and said I should go on “Major Bowes,” a radio talent show of that time. My father replaced that car with a black 1947 Chevrolet sedan, in 1949.
My stepfather drove a green 1938 Plymouth sedan. I learned how to drive in that car. He was a very patient man, never fussing at me, even when I nearly got a ticket and nearly had an accident. View image In 1949 he bought a new blue Packard, a beautiful car (Their slogan was, “Ask the man who owns one.”)View image He later bought a grey Packard coupe, as a second car, and graciously let me use it much of the time, and even let me take it to college for a little while. View image
The first car I bought was a bank repo, green 1941 Mercury, and was pretty much of a wreck, with some of the windows taped together. I needed it to commute to the church I was pastoring and to do the pastoral work on the field. The engine was no good so they replaced it with a Ford motor. I had to rewire it completely. One thing after another was always wrong.View image In 1953 Wanda and I traded it in on a white 1950 Nash Ambassador. All the seats folded in such a way that a full bed was created. View image
The Nash engine cratered on one of my trips to the seminary, and the wrecker destroyed the transmission by towing it incorrectly, so we traded it in for a green 1951 Chevrolet sedan. We kept it five years. View image
In 1959 we bought a new green Chevrolet Biscayne.View image After 4 years, it was damaged in a collision and we bought a white 1963 Chevrolet Biscayne new. View image
The next new car we bought after driving the 1963 Chevrolet 4 years was a red 1966 Volkswagen (air conditioned). View image We sold that one and got a maroon 1968 Chevrolet Station Wagon. View image When that one was damaged in an accident, we replaced it with a nearly new white 1974 Dodge Monaco. View image It was often mistaken by other drivers as a police car, because it looked so much like the cars in use by law enforcement at that time. We drove that until we got a used white 1968 Chrysler New Yorker,View image and we drove that until 1979, when we bought a new maroon and white Ford LTD Crown Victoria. View image We drove that car eleven years until I accidentally overheated and damaged the engine and we traded it in on a new maroon 1990 Buick LeSabre. View image The Buick was stolen and wrecked in 1994, so we bought a new blue 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis to replace it.View image I’m still driving it. We also bought a new blue 1981 Chevette when we had the Crown Victoria. We later sold it outright. View image
The first “second car” we owned was a black 1949 Ford, bought in 1964. From then on, as the kids began to drive, it was one old car after another as a second car: a red 1960 Ford, a maroon 1963 Ford, a red 1971 Datsun, a green 1972 Chevelle, a green 1960’s Plymouth Volare, We also bought a used brown 1973 Chevrolet Camaro around 1987. Later we bought a used white 1989 Oldsmobile (Wanda’s parents’ car). And I bought an old white Mercury Grand Marquis, driving it home from New Mexico, sometime in the late 70’s. For years until the last child grew up, we always had several cars parked around the house. I also had a used blue and white 1981 Ford 150 Pickup for a while.
After retirement, in 1998, we bought a used 1989 motor homeView image and a blue 1991 Plymouth mini van to tow behind it. View image I still own both.
My favorites? The 1979 Ford LTD Crown Victoria and the 1971 Datsun sedan.
Pretty dull stuff, huh?