** FIRST VEHICLES

[Bird]

A drug store in Marlow, huh? Marlow is where I took drivers ed in high school and got my first drivers license and first car. And your mom sounds like our younger daughter. When our youngest got her first drivers license, she took the test in our big old Chrysler Town & Country station wagon (automatic of course), so she'd never driven anything with a manual transmission. A short time later, she applied for a job at a pharmacy. The pharmacist needed someone to both work the counter and to deliver prescriptions, so he asked her if she could drive a manual transmission and she said, "Yes", got the job, rushed home and called our older daughter's boyfriend who had a Datsun Z car and asked him to teach her to drive it. He took her out for about 15 minutes, told her she was going to tear his car up, and no way he was going to let her try again to drive it. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] She said she knew that first delivery she made took a lot longer than it should have and the pharmacy's little Datsun pickup did a lot of bucking and stalling, but she got it done, and learned to drive a manual transmission. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

I guess overall she did pretty well because a few months later, an elderly gentleman in a Lincoln Towncar pulled out from a stop sign in front of her and she broadsided him and totalled that Datsun. She went to the hospital pretty banged up and bruised, but had her seat belt on and no serious injuries. And that night when I got her home from the hospital, the pharmacist called to see how she was doing, told her he'd have her a new pickup tomorrow, and asked her what color she wanted. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, My Mom's aunt and uncle (Leo Henning) ran a resturant in Marlow for a while. He used to keep various novelty attractions to boost interest. He kept a bear for a while. Patrons would buy a bottle of pop for the bear to get to watch it drink up and the bear would turn it up and drink it down. That bear sold a lot of sodas. This was all well before my time (or PETA or Susan "Dead in the Head" Sarandon.)

Just a couple months ago my mom gave my sister the glasses that had been used in the resturant for icecream sundays. They were very heavy and thick glass and had begun to turn purple from being stored in a window sill in bright sun, on purpose to cause that effect.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] The Batmobile was heir to the really bad GM tranny known as a Jet-a-way. They were pretty useless, but the CONCEPT eventually led to the more durable Turbo-Hydramatic 400 and the less durable 350 and the very junky 200(250). [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Interestingly enough, even the earlier Booahs had traditionally used a Dynaflo automatic transmission, and it was also quite piggy "off the line". It was sort of a Buick tradition to be slow starting I guess. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, We didn't get much Buick experience, the Batmobile being the only one in our family but it was not a slow starter. It was pretty quick off the line. My sister used to drag race it against other high school seniors and did OK. The tranny did fail when it was three years old. Drive went out and my mom had to drive it 22 miles in low to get to a repair shop.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] The engine in the Batmobile was nearly 400 cubic inches as I recall; it was made in the high-cube era. I had a '58 New Yorker that had the 392 double-rocker hemi in it. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[lbrown59]

He kept a bear for a while. Patrons would buy a bottle of pop for the bear to get to watch it drink up and the bear would turn it up and drink it down.

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Back in the 50s down in the Smokey Mountains somebody used to do that with a bear.
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MY FIRST CAR http://chevy.tocmp.com/chevyscrapbook/files/kamp50.jpg
OUR FIRST CAR http://www.hubcapcafe.com/ocs/pages01/chev6003.htm
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[Pat]

YUP! People did a lot of incredibly stupid things with bears in the Smokies. I can remember as a child our family drove through the Smokies several times. I remember the bear jams where cars woud be backed up when the "Looky Lous" stopped to see the "cute" bears take cookies through the car window. I recall seing little kids being sent forward by parents to give bruin a cookie so they could have a KODAK moment.

Numbers of people got hurt. Some weere lucky to only get scratches on the car or a broken window. If stupidity were criminal they'd have been locked up.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[sanmigmike]

Think Isadora was in a new Bugatti... We used to live near Cholame (okay we lived in San Miguel) and James Dean was a big deal there at times. If I remember right it was an ag student at Cal Poly named Donald Turnipseed heading home to the Fresno area. Good point on playboys going out in an "interesting" way... Porfirio Rubirosa hit a tree in a park in Paris driving his Ferrari, ah if you have to go, what a way to go?

First car: Fiat 850 Spyder, I wanted a TR-6 but got the Fiat!
Married: I had a Ford Pinto and she had a Chevy Monza with the 350, a California only car, a fun car.
Bought Married: Plymouth Satellite Sebring(rusted out winter car in up state New York), first and only new car as a couple a Mazda 626 diesel.

Still lust after the Jaguar E type but don't really fit in the coupes, oh well.

[roypat2126]

What was the first car you ever owned?
What was the first car you and your spouse owned after you were married?
IB,
In '64 $250.00 bought a 1930 Model A coupe my first car (still have it) and in '69 when my black-headed ol' Indian woman (there's a story behind that ) and I married we had a nice runnin ''46 Ford V8, 2 door sedan, with 2 dueces, Spaulding (racing)distributor, and high rise intake manifold. Was very quick and great on gas! (Tho it vapor-locked in the TX heat at times) The '46 only had rear brakes as previous owner used vice-grips on the front bleed valves. we sold it for a '68 Chev Byscane (sp) which was the main ride when the kids started arriving, until the Vega came along in '71. I didn't get a re-up bonus like some other GI's at the time but we had a lot o fun in those days even with these buckets......Thought we were in real high cotton with the '68, it being two years old at the time... And TODAY as a matter of fact 37th wedded anniversary we still B havin lots a fun.............. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
roy