52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy - Week 3 Cars

Week 3: Cars. What was your first car? Describe the make, model and color, but also any memories you have of the vehicle. You can also expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.

I learned how to drive on a Toyota Cressida.  After I obtained my driver's license reality was put forth, my parents gave me the keys to my own vehicle to drive.  The car - a 1977 Chevy Nova, three on the tree, with just an am radio and vinyl seats- was not anywhere close to being a Toyota Cressida.  No lumbar support, no stereo fm, and it had a clutch.  I could not believe that this was the car I was expected to drive, I didn't even know how to drive a manual transmission car.  The scariest thing was the car starting in reverse.  The first time I started it up and lifted my foot off the clutch I flew backwards down the driveway.  That is when I decided that it was not important to drive.

Anyway, I finally learned how to drive the car.  My brother asked me to come with him to one of his friend's house.  He was driving the car but hopped out in downtown Des Plaines (Illinois) forcing me to jump into the drivers seat to move the car.  I have no idea where he disappeared to but I did learn how to drive that car.  I stalled the car about twenty times on the way home.  I had drivers behind me honking and screaming at me but I did it all be myself with tears streaming down my face.  After that I drove that car all the time.  The vehicle was a massive improvement to walking to school in the snow.  My manual transmission lesson worked out well, I can drive anything - which comes in handy when asked to repo cars for my clients.

Thank you Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) for the series  52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy (http://www.geneabloggers.com/52-weeks-personal-genealogy-history/). This the third such series of prompts and challenges presented on a weekly basis at GeneaBloggers. .