I bought my first car when I was 16 years old. IT was a 1955 Ford Customline. My dad took me down to look at it in the dead of a Pa. winter. It was sitting out behind this guys house and hadn't been started for a while. Upon seeing it the first time I noticed a few things I liked about it. The paint was a nice burgundy metal flake, the were chrome wheels on the front and deep dish chromes with baby moons on the back. The rear wheel wells were cut out a little and I noticed the home made traction bars on the rear leaves. We tried to see if it would fire up but to no avail. SO the owner opened up the hood to give it a shot of ether and low and behold there it sat, a Holley 850 carb sitting on top of a high rise manifold bolted down to a 1956 292c.i. T-bird engine. He had it all clean and painted the bright orange that was the only option back then. He told me to get it and try to crank it over while he gave it a blast of ether. When I got inside I noticed that there was no back seat, the head liner was almost completely gone, it had a small racing steering wheel, and this bright orange shift knob over a flat chrome stick. Later to find out a Hurst flat-bar shift kit. Well he gave it a blast and I turned the key and boom, that T-bird engine fired up and the sound coming out of the exhaust was music to my ears, deep, low, and loud! He said it had duel straight pipes with cherry bomb mufflers.

I ask how much and he said, "well I'd like to get $200 for it". I couldn't believe my ears and pulled out my wallet and gave him the money.  My dad drove it home because I still hadn't learned to drive a stick yet. I leaned fast though and in a day of two he let me out on my own. Man was that car way cool. It had positraction 4:09 gears in the rear and would lay tire forever. The Holley fed it plenty of gas when you buried your foot in it and would keep up with the best in it's class.

Being in Pa. you had to pass a safety inspection annually and I took my 55 in for a new sticker. It passed everything except when he put the screwdriver through the front A-frame. So I went out and found one, swapped it out and it passed. unfortunately when he put the one back wheel on after checking the rear brakes he forgot to tighten the lug nuts on the passenger side. So, on my way down to work the next day I look in the rear view mirror ro see two little boys chsing my back tire down the sidewalk.

I drove that car for about a year when my dad came home from work one day and said "hey son, I found you a new car, better than that old Ford that is starting to nickle and dime you in to the poor house." I was dumbfounded. He said "ya I sold yours too. Got ya $50 bucks for it. I know a guy that just finished fixing up a  1966 Plymouth Fury II, new paint and all!" What an ugly car! It was a beige four door. It had a small block 318 V-8 in it and an automatic trany. It wasn't much to look at and even less to drive. But hey, Dad held the titles and insurance on it so what ever he decided was ok with me. I was better than walking to work! Besides he said the guy gauranteed the body work for 2 years. Well the rust started popping out of the putty in about 4 months. Time to make a change!

And what a change it was! Now I had a full time job, great pay, and money to burn! I wen tout shopping for a new ride. I looked for a while before I spotted her. A bright red 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo with a black vinyl roof, 350 V8 turbo automatic. I went in and signed the papers and for $76.00 a month I had a beautiful car. The first thing I did to her was added some nice mag wheels and fat tires. I added a Pioneer super tuner with tri-axial speakers and I had my party moblie! I put many a mile on her just cruisin' and smokin'! There was a friend I had at the Grove, a local dance hall in Castle Shannon that drove a '69 Eldorado that would beg me to trade him rides for the evening, which I did on several occasions!  I had her for about 3 years and then started to have tranny probs. I can't imagine why, lol? I really didn't think this one through and thought it would be easier to go out and get a new ride and refinance rather than saving up and getting the transmission fixed. That is a mistake that I will regret for the rest of my life. That Monte Carlo was one of the best rides I ever owned. And now when I go to car shows and see one it just makes me kick myself for ever letting that one go.

So I went out and found what I thought to be a pretty glamorous car, a 197Mercury Monarch. it had air conditioning! lol What was I thinking? Oh well it was a nice car, 4 doors made it easier to load up the friends for a night drive into the mountains of Pa. It had a great sound system in it and was very comfortable. I did like it's styling which was alot like the more expensive Lincolns at that time. It was a orangish gold color with tan interior and rode like a Cadillac.

I can't remember why I got rid of this one but the replacement was another of my favorites. This would be my first import car, a 1978 Toyota Corona Mark III 2-Door Hardtop. It had everything that was in the Celica GT but in a different body style and I just couldn't afford the Celi. So, I bought her. This was one fun car, so nimble and quick. A five speed which was right up my gearhead alley. I loved to take her through the gears, in and out of traffic, stuff that if I did today would probably get me arrested as an agressive driver. I remember a few humerous antiodotes with this one. One day my younger sister thought she would be nice and give her a bath and shine. She noticed several spots of tar here and there and not having much experience, grabbed what she thought would be the logical thing, an SOS pad! Well needless to say, I drove around with these dulled out scratch spots all over the car. I was so mad at her then but now I laugh about it.

My next car i bought right after I got married the first time. A 1973 Camaro. It had a 350 V8 and an automatic tranny but other than being a Camaro, nothing much to say about it. It was what the little woman liked and I liked it too so we bought it.

It wasn't long till there was another kid on the way and it was time to get something that would make it easier to get them in and out of the backseat, not to mention more room for the extra groceries! That's when we went out and bout my first wagon!

A 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser! Ours was Blue with the fake woody down the sides. We used the crap outta that car. I had to replace a head gasket, valves and lifters in it once and managed to pull it off turning my own wrenches!

Well there is nothing like a new job, better pay, and a new environment to get your new car juices flowing so we went out and bought a real family vehicle...a 1993 Grand Caravan! What a nice vehicle, plenty of room, power, and ride, just as though you were driving a car but all the added perks of a van. The 3 kids loved having the added room and trips were alot more comfortable and peaceful.

Then there came the 1978 Buick Regal I got from my Grandmother. I always like the Regals and actually had one on order to be special made for us but I got layed off from the local Steel Mill and had to forget about it. So when she offered the Regal to us we bought it as a second car. i had to change out all the bottom seals and bearing in that engine and was impressed with myself when I turned the key and it started up on the first try! Unfortunately I forgot about the need break-in time. I was pulling into traffic on the Interstate and had to get on it pretty hard when all of a sudden I noticed I was trailing a half a mile of white smoke. It was pretty much toast at that point. So back to the dealer...any ideas why I had money issues? Think it was the cars? nah

When it came time to replace the Regal, we decided to trade both the Regal and the van in and get two new cars.

So I got a 1993 Nissan Sentra for work and we got a 1997 Chevy Malibu for the family car.

That was short lived because soon after that I got divorced, she kept the Malibu and I of course got the Sentra. The sentra was a wonderful car for the price. Inexpensive to drive and fun to boot. I g=had at one time considered adding some ground effect body parts to it and making it a Euro but never got the chance. On my down to visit my kids for Father's day it blew the engine. So I had it towed the rest of the way and left it there for the wrecker to come and take it to the great rust pile behind the fence.

So I was off again in search of another ride. My son came up to visit and we went out looking for a car together. It wasn't long before we came across a 1993 Honda Accord Wagon with very low milage and in almost show room condition. The price was right and I couldn't resist, with the gentle nudging of my son of course. I babied this one. She was special, an incredibly fine ride. I would have kept her for a long time and possibly have shown her too but something happened on the way to the market. I saw this sitting on the side of the road with a for sale sign on it. Do you blame me?