52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Cars
I couldn't resist this weeks topic by Amy Coffin of We Tree. To write in my blog about memories of cars. We are a car family. I married a car man for Pete's sake! I have so many good memories, and when I get back home I will see if I can find some photos to share as well.
I'm starting first with my childhood. It was an old blue Ford 1972 pickup my Dad drove. I can still hear the sound to this day. For many years the darn fan built would squeal. We always new when Dad was around the corner on his way home from work. You could hear that thing squeal from a mile away! It was a good old pickup. It also comes with a darker memory too. The day I was almost left with out a father. If not for the grace of God by his side he would have been shot to death by a police officer in Modesto, CA because of a mistake in identity. My Dad worked only about five blocks from home at Proctor & Gamble in Modesto, CA. I don't know what year this happened as I was very young, though I think I was about 8 or 9 years old which would have been around around 1983. The grocery store down the street on Crowslanding road in South Modesto had just been robbed as my father was leaving the house for work. The description given to the officers matched my father's blue Ford pickup. When he pulled out of Glenn (our street) onto Crowslanding Rd, the rooky cop spotted him and followed him into the Proctor and Gamble parking lot where he worked. The officer opened fire on him. My Dad took two shots, one in the hand and the other in the shoulder. There were about four or five shots fired. One barely missing his head. He recovered fully.
Then my first car......a piece of junk! Actually my first two cars were. My first was a $200 green 1970 something fast back Mustang. My cousins grandmother had it out in here field. At the time my husband and I were dating and he looked at it and believed he could fix it, so we bought it from her. James and Dad did get it running, but not for long. I drove it for a while until the darn engine overheated and it was done for good. I even remember the day I went to James house to give him back his ring and break off our engagement. I was driving that car, and I'll never forget how when I was getting back in I looked up to hear my now mother-in-law screaming "Shannon (that's what his family calls him) get back in here." I had told him it was over, left the rings and walked out. He obvously didn't want me to leave with out an explanation and since he had been in bed was still in his underwear, to his mother's dismay, running across the lawn to my car. I had to stop and go back in the house. I left there with a promise to give it another try. I guess the boy in the front lawn in his underwear was enough to disarm a determined girl who had taken her brother along to make the point. We laugh about that all the time. Of course for a newly engaged couple that car also had other great memories too. That was back before the drive-in movies were completely gone. There was still one in our town, though it was gone a few years later. It sure was an ugly pain in the butt car, but wonderful memories.
Then since those days I've had many other cars. The one I miss the most is our T-top lemon ice yellow '95 Trans Am with a V8 engine. Boy did that thing have power. I loved that car and still miss it. My husband had used the whole back trunk to put in a speaker system. I remember I use to think he was crazy. That was something young stupid kids did right? That was until the car became mine and I fell in love with hearing my country music in stereo! Shanian Twain and even George Straight sounded so much better in stereo. I was also an outside account rep for a printing company in Spokane. I remember that people took notice when you pulled up in an impressive vehicle like that. It was also nice to have such a beautiful car when you took clients out to lunch. I was pregnant with Jamie, my third child when I was driving that car. It did get more difficult to get in and out of that thing the bigger I got though, but otherwise it was a very comfortable and fun car. We sold it after Jamie was born because the back seat wasn't a bench but two buckets. It wouldn't hold three kids with two in car seats!
I'm starting first with my childhood. It was an old blue Ford 1972 pickup my Dad drove. I can still hear the sound to this day. For many years the darn fan built would squeal. We always new when Dad was around the corner on his way home from work. You could hear that thing squeal from a mile away! It was a good old pickup. It also comes with a darker memory too. The day I was almost left with out a father. If not for the grace of God by his side he would have been shot to death by a police officer in Modesto, CA because of a mistake in identity. My Dad worked only about five blocks from home at Proctor & Gamble in Modesto, CA. I don't know what year this happened as I was very young, though I think I was about 8 or 9 years old which would have been around around 1983. The grocery store down the street on Crowslanding road in South Modesto had just been robbed as my father was leaving the house for work. The description given to the officers matched my father's blue Ford pickup. When he pulled out of Glenn (our street) onto Crowslanding Rd, the rooky cop spotted him and followed him into the Proctor and Gamble parking lot where he worked. The officer opened fire on him. My Dad took two shots, one in the hand and the other in the shoulder. There were about four or five shots fired. One barely missing his head. He recovered fully.
Then my first car......a piece of junk! Actually my first two cars were. My first was a $200 green 1970 something fast back Mustang. My cousins grandmother had it out in here field. At the time my husband and I were dating and he looked at it and believed he could fix it, so we bought it from her. James and Dad did get it running, but not for long. I drove it for a while until the darn engine overheated and it was done for good. I even remember the day I went to James house to give him back his ring and break off our engagement. I was driving that car, and I'll never forget how when I was getting back in I looked up to hear my now mother-in-law screaming "Shannon (that's what his family calls him) get back in here." I had told him it was over, left the rings and walked out. He obvously didn't want me to leave with out an explanation and since he had been in bed was still in his underwear, to his mother's dismay, running across the lawn to my car. I had to stop and go back in the house. I left there with a promise to give it another try. I guess the boy in the front lawn in his underwear was enough to disarm a determined girl who had taken her brother along to make the point. We laugh about that all the time. Of course for a newly engaged couple that car also had other great memories too. That was back before the drive-in movies were completely gone. There was still one in our town, though it was gone a few years later. It sure was an ugly pain in the butt car, but wonderful memories.
Then since those days I've had many other cars. The one I miss the most is our T-top lemon ice yellow '95 Trans Am with a V8 engine. Boy did that thing have power. I loved that car and still miss it. My husband had used the whole back trunk to put in a speaker system. I remember I use to think he was crazy. That was something young stupid kids did right? That was until the car became mine and I fell in love with hearing my country music in stereo! Shanian Twain and even George Straight sounded so much better in stereo. I was also an outside account rep for a printing company in Spokane. I remember that people took notice when you pulled up in an impressive vehicle like that. It was also nice to have such a beautiful car when you took clients out to lunch. I was pregnant with Jamie, my third child when I was driving that car. It did get more difficult to get in and out of that thing the bigger I got though, but otherwise it was a very comfortable and fun car. We sold it after Jamie was born because the back seat wasn't a bench but two buckets. It wouldn't hold three kids with two in car seats!
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