Actually, I’ll start with this 1958 Rambler—the one in which I learned to drive. I drove it regularly starting when I was about sixteen, and drove it full time in my senior year in high school. My parents farmed it out to me as they acquired newer ones, but technically it was never actually mine.
My memory is that it was more green than this. Because of the reclining seats, we built a tent top for it, and experimented with camping in the summer of 1960. It was a mixed result—any movement in the body of the car was magnified tremendously up in the tent. But we bought a real tent the following year and camped another several years. I’m sorry to report I never had any success in the use of the reclining seats while dating.
The 1964 Beetle was a graduation gift from my parents. I pounded the crap out of it for four years, learned most of my car handling skills in it, added a tachometer, Lucas driving lights, an oil pressure gauge, a Becker AM/FM radio (heady stuff in 1965), and Talbot mirrors. I think I also put a sport exhaust on it, but I don’t recall now, fifty years later.
Once I wore out the Bug, I found the 1968 Olds Cutlass convertible at a rental dealer in Jacksonville. It’s the one, of which I have the fondest memories. I think I traded it in during a fit of new car fever. This pic is mine.
I met and married my bride in 1970 and she came with this 1969 Ford XL. I hated it. It was the poster child of heavy, wallowy Detroit iron. It was a two door and they must have weighed 500 pounds apiece. Following the new car fever theme, it began when several of my car pool mates had either bought or were looking at Lincoln Continental Mark IIs. All that talk was getting me interested, but they were just too pricy at the time. We traded the XL in on the Thunderbird, below.
In the meantime, I replaced my ’68 Olds with a 1971 Olds Cutlass Supreme. It was my first car with cruise control and my first brand new car (other than the VW, but I paid for this one). It was sort of the interim step in upgrade path to a luxury car.
All these years later I’m not sure whether we traded both the XL and the Cutlass in on this 1973 Thunderbird. I know we felt comfortable downsizing to a single car because I had gotten a transfer to Chicago and we thought we could manage with just one vehicle.
After only a couple of months in Chicagoland I wandered into a nearby VW dealership (I don’t know why) and this special edition 1973 Sport Beetle was sitting on the floor. It had a racing wheel and racing style seats as well as sporty decoration. We had some spare money from the sale of the Florida house, so…
I’m not sure how practical this was, although we got a lot of secondary car use out of it. But, it was fun to drive. It’s also the last stick shift I had until the last-but-one vehicle down below (the furriner—you’ll see).
In 1975, with several coworkers getting or building camper type vehicles, I got the hots for a Ford Econoline with an eye to customizing it myself. We ordered it as is seen here, although we added two interior, second row captain’s chairs for the kids. Wee also put a window in the near side and one in the door on the off side.
We made only two camping trips with it, although travelled conventionally with it for several years. It was always great to take a nap on the bed I built in. You just had to move some suitcases. We traded in the T-Bird on it.
In 1983, the Sports Bug was getting long in the tooth and red around the fenders, so we started looking for something a little more upscale. I was first interested in the Honda Accord because I liked the lines, but a friend had had great fondness for Volvos, so we took a look and wound up with a 244 Turbo. It was a nice looking car and would really scoot when you mashed your right foot into the carpet, but it wound up being a bit on the lemony side and trips to the dealer were never less than $300. I vowed never to own an import again (which vow lasted until 2015).
I’m not sure if there was a direct transaction between the E-150 and the Aerostar or not. I’m reasonably certain we gave the van to the son of a friend, so we must have bought the 1988 Aerostar straight up. I do know we were inspired to do so by the introduction of the family transport type vehicles introduced by Chrysler, and even looked at them. But riding around in bride’s brother’s Aerostar on a trip to Canada sealed the deal.
This was our first car with a computer, plus the electronic dash was switchable from miles to kilometers. It was a much better traveller than the Volvo for a family of four.
By 1993, the Volvo was getting long in the tooth, and our attention turned to another high riding vehicle (after five years of the Aerostar and ten or more years of the Econoline). Enter the Eddie Bauer version of the Ford Explorer. 4WD, no less. The whole time we owned it we proclaimed it our best car. We kept it the customary ten years, put over 250,000 miles on it, made many trips between Illinois and Florida towing loads of belongings behind us as we started moving out of Illinois in 1998. This pic is ours.
We had left the Aerostar with our son when we came south and were back to a one car family for a bit. While living in a condo in South Florida, one of our neighbors, an elderly couple of ladies, decided it wasn’t safe for them to drive their 1989 Chrysler New Yorker and offered it to us at a fire sale price. We couldn't pass it up, even though it was a Chrysler.
First we bought a house 250 miles up the coast. Then the Explorer started to wear out (at 250K!) and we got our tails wagging for another Explorer. The first one was that good. We bought a 2004 outright at the local dealer and sold the ’93 privately. This pic is ours.
We only drove the Chrysler infrequently, as most of our outings are together, and it’s infrequent when we need the second car. Ultimately it seized up due to lack of use (and probably because it was a Chrysler) and we donated it to some tax deduction scam, probably around 2008.
Back to one car, which was okay, but my mother finally came to her senses about driving and donated her 1994 Mercury Sable to our cause in 2010. It had a couple of cosmetic issues, but it was good transportation for the local kinds of things we did occasionally. This pic is ours.
I sold it privately to make way for the next occupant of half the driveway:
In the Spring of 2015, I started to reprise an itch I’d gotten a year before—to get something sporty and fun with which bride and I could enjoy our golden years. There was a local dealer who featured several exotic drop hoods on his forecourt, and I stopped by one day to take a look. The long and short of it was a 2000 Porsche Boxster came home with me. It’s been a blast and is the perfect toy for me. It was insanely inexpensive (as a fifteen year old car) but with relatively low mileage and being a Porsche, it has plenty of life to give me. Our son immediately requested a codicil to the will to ensure he gets it. This pic is ours.
Well, sure enough, the below last paragraph proved prophetic. This is the 2015 Explorer we just acquired. We’ve had it just long enough to drive it home and don't have all the bells and whistles figured out, yet. It’s black on black, like the furriner above, although with some sparkles in the base coat. It’s too early to really report on it, though.
I’m not sure what the next chapter will bring. Actually I know what, but not the specifics of which or when. Our 2004 Explorer, after eleven years of faithful service and nearly 190,000 miles is starting to show her age. I recently did some body repair on the roof and saw that a lot more work could need doing in the next year or so. Time to stop and car shop. We’re thinking Explorer again, as despite the pleasure of being inches above the pavement in the Boxster, we still like high riding for most of our driving. But we’re going to look around and see what’s been happening the last eleven years.
Last updated: 09 October 2015
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