WebKittyn Warbles
Friday, October 08, 2004
Baby You Can Drive My Car
I've been driving longer than some of my MUDders have been alive. That's a sobering thought.
I've had five cars since I got my license, 4 new and one sort of used. Let my cars be my first documented piece of reminiscing.
The first car was a 1985 Buick LeSabre Limited. This was my first car and the car I learned to drive in. Yah, yah, it was the 80's and Reaganomics were good to my family.
The car was massive, they were still making long cars back then and this was a large car. It was white with blue pin-striping and it had every possible cushy option. It had a moonroof and the softest dark blue interior (I hate leather interior, I need velour), opera lights and it was a truly gorgeous machine.
I was the first one in my immediate circle to have a car and it helped to have a massive beast that Dale and Fay an Wiltie and whomever else was around could fit into and get down to Hudson Park. I remember a dude named Cecil who had the exact same car and everytime we'd pass each other or he would go through the park we'd honk and flash the lights.
Unfortunately it soon became obvious the car had a bum trannie. This was before the lemon law, there was nothing we could do and thousands were spent in trying to fix it. Eventually it became obvious the car was hopeless and as much as it hurt me, my parents told me to use it as a down payment on a new car.
While not exact, the closest to my car I could find is:
located here.
Down at the bottom in the left-hand corner is the closest one but it's missing the pinstriping and it doesn't look as pimped out. This was truly a pimped out car and I loved it. (2 doors, not 4 doors)
Then came the 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis. If I thought the Buick was large and impressive the Marquis was all that and then some. The car had every option including my much-loved opera lights, special limousine-sized moonroof, heated lighted electric mirrors and the softest grey interior under the sun.
Seven or eight people could fit easily in this car. I got a decent amount on the Buick and paid the rest up front. This car was a head turner that I was too young, too spoiled and too stupid to appreciate.
I should have known it was doomed when it was inside the first three days of having the car that it got hit while I was parked. We were at Hudson Park hanging out and I had all these open bottles of booze in the trunk and the back, it was a typical weekend summer night. Some dude comes flying around the park and slams right into the back right panel, boom. The guy was so drunk he got out without realising he had hit me and asked if we had a light.. Oy.
I truly am ashamed of how I treated that car. I beat it into the ground for 2 years and then got bored with the mess it had become and decided to get a new car. Twas the curse of the over-indulgent 80's and I had it bad.
While not exact, the closest to my car I could find is:
located here.
Mine was a deep maroon, it's not exact but it's close. I treated that car terrible, I'm sorry about that.
Next came the "Firechicken." I had been looking at a 1985 Trans-Am GTA but I had an attack of the cheaps and decided instead to go with a new 1987 Pontiac Firebird. Unlike the past, I got no extra options. I was too caught up in the look of the car, the outside was gorgeous. So what if it was a 6 cylinder with nothing electric, no t-tops, no cassette and nothing at all, it LOOKS nice! Yug.
As momma said, there's more to life than looks and I quickly got tired of the car.
While not exact, the closest I can find to the car is:
located here.
Mine was all black and not nearly as sporty looking and it had nothing extra. Just a firechicken.
The moral of the firechicken was that if you really love something, go for it. Don't worry because it might set you back in the pocket a bit, don't ever compromise on something important. Nothing wakes you up like an $18,000 crew up that came out of your pocket.
I was working at a pretty big bank at the time and there was a kid who lived up the block that was one of the neighbourhood crew named Karl. Karl's family had a lot of money and Karl always had nice things. One of the nice things Karl had was a red 1984 Pontiac Z28.
Karl had invested in the car. It had a souped 8 cylinder 350, custom enlarged t-tops and every option possible. It
had been kept in his garage and in 1987 only had 8,000 miles on it. Bored with his toy, Karl decided to sell it for a flat 10k.
I took an employee loan out of the bank (no interest) and grabbed that sucker, it was everything the firechicken was not. It had funky louvres (louvers? I have no idea how to spell that word) and it was a beast.. The first time I got in it to drive it I had Fay with me and I almost put us through the parkway wall that was at the end of the block. The car had power.
It was my first 'muscle car' before the Guidification of the Z28 created the Iroc *shudders*.
Turned out the car had too much power but that should be its own reminiscing warble at some point. I wiped out in the car and while I wasn't hurt and got away with driving drunk and committing vehicular manslaughter on an exit sign (this was the last time I *ever* drove drunk, I took the wisdom of the experience), something inside me turned off and I wasn't in love with the car anymore.
This dude's car is black and mine was red with pinstriping and silver on the bottom but it's daaaamn close and it's: located here.
I kept the Z28 longer than any of the other cars, the wipeout was in 1991, I had a long and happy relationship with the car. Driving it was always a challenge and it was useless in the winter but it was the car with the most attitude I had ever owned.
In 1993 my father's aunts died. These were the never-married sisters who raised my dad after his dad was killed in WWII and his mother decided she didn't want to be a mother anymore and left my dad with her deceased husband's sisters and mother. My father had never really liked the Z28 and he was tired of having to drive my ass to work at the college in the winter.
He decided to use some of the money left to him to buy me a stable car. My cousin Bonnie had a Geo Tracker and was always raving about how much she loved it and how good it was in the snow. We looked also at Chrysler LeBaron convertibles but decided instead to go with the Tracker.
When first ordered, I had requested a metallic purple paint. There were a ton of these Trackers in this colour all over, they were the crack jeeps on da bronx. We went with the LX hardtop model so it became less of a crack jeep clone.
I pretty much gave the Z28 to Dale, I think he might havepaid me $500 as a token but he pretty much got the car for nothing. And man, if I thought *I* drove it badly, it took no time at all for him to destroy my poor machine and sell it off to some freaky friend of his.
11 years later I still have the Tracker. It's more than a car for me, it's a link to my aunts. My aunts were two wonderful women I didn't treat nearly as well as I should have and it only makes the Tracker mean more to me. It's survived 11 winters and hasn't gotten stuck once. It slides into 4WD and laughs as it passes those who laughed at it.
And that is the history of the WebKittyn and the automobile. This went on a whole lot longer than I thought it would but I'm feeling that calming sense that comes with self-therapy. I can go as long as I want here, these are the warbles!
Here in my car, I am starting to think,
about leaving tonight, although nothing seems right.
In cars..
-
All those big cars...all those people they fit in them...all those comfy cushy seats...and one rule as the cold winter air would slam into you if you were in the back seat:
NO FUCKING SLEEPING!!!
Darkstar on 10/13 at 01:17 AM -
Damn skippy.
Just because it was my car didn’t make me friggin’ Boris the chauffeur.
All freeloaders must remain awake or face the arctic blast on their snoozing faces!
yep yep yep.
on 10/13 at 01:19 AM -
Yea well… when you decide to take your first drive to Manhattan and get lost at the WTC… one tends to get a little groggy.
Darkstar on 11/02 at 12:28 AM -
Hated the backseat ..NO FUCKING SLEEPING and no THOU SHALT NOT WHINE or the window stays open longer..... Evil kitty....
on 07/12 at 12:11 AM -
well well well its FUCKEN cold. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7am. driving around and around. My face is frozen, wake up no sleeping I can’t keep my eyes open.I want to tgo home to my warm bed.LET ME SLEEPPPPP.
PS no under the blanket party........hehehehe Just came to mind. Making me think of things.
As for your Aunts, She you where evil EVIL EVIL. But party time was funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
on 07/30 at 01:30 AM
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