A Drive Down Memory Lane

Events of recent weeks have sparked memories of the vehicles that have parked themselves in my life since I got my license at age 16 - do the math - that's 1975!!  Ride with me!  Let's go for a drive, shall we?

The year was 1970.  My family was living in Lima, Ohio - I was in 5th or 6th grade.  Dad brought home a slightly used car that he was very proud of and excited about.  It was a maroon 1969 Mercury Marquis Brougham which he proudly announced was loaded because it was the dealership show car.   Here is a photo I found which was taken about 1980:

This car was my father's pride and joy.  It took us on many family trips, went back and forth to visit grandparents in Dayton and Pomeroy many times, and moved with us to Milan in 1975.  It was an 8 cylinder gas guzzler at a time when gas was around $ .50/gallon.  Are you old enough to remember the energy crisis of the '70s? 

In the mid '70s, when my maternal grandfather was no longer able to drive, my father took his car (perhaps a blue Buick Skylark?  The details are sketchy), and gave me this Mercury "boat" for my senior year in high school  (1976-77).  Since most of my friends were younger than I was and didn't have cars, I became the chauffeur for many play rehearsals.  There was a time we were driving home from a cast party late one evening and decided it would be faster to take a "shortcut" down a partly dirt road that went between fields, which was fun until we got stuck in the mud!!! (This was before cell phones!) Which reminds me of how many times I struggled to get this very large vehicle with rear-wheel drive up the icy curvy hill that was Milan Manor Drive!  

Once the car became mine, I decorated the dashboard with a small stuffed bear named Honey Pot.  He was wedged between the dash and the windshield and the top of his little head became slanted, flat and sun-bleached.  It is a good thing Honey Pot couldn't talk!  

If you look closely at the photo above, you will notice that there was no structural bar between the front window and the back window.  There was just a metal strip with a piece of rubber between the two windows when they were up, and when both windows were down, the whole expanse was just open.  Some of my high school classmates figured out how to break into the car by sticking something between those windows to lift the door lock.  They would sit in my car and smoke and drink when they were cutting class, and I had to explain to my father why my car reeked of cigarette smoke and beer!  It wasn't me Dad!  HONEST!  

I drove that car until the engine caught on fire - then I was done.  I was on Rt 250 in Norwalk, when smoke started coming out around the edge of the hood.  I pulled into the Bargain Center, opened the hood and saw flames on top of the air filter and ran in to tell them my car was on fire.  When I came out, someone with a fire extinguisher in their truck had put the fire out.   It was the summer of 1980.  I don't remember if Dad traded it in on something else at that point or what he did with it, but it quickly left my life.  

By then I was in college - BGSU - and Dad decided I needed to have a car at school, so that summer he took me to a corner car lot in Sandusky and together we picked out my first car - a 1976 Plymouth Volare'.  Now, of course this was before the magic of the internet and all the wonderful information it provides.  Had I researched the car before I picked it, I would NOT have bought it, but to me it was glorious!  

Meet Aphrodite - we called her "Aphro" because she was SOOOO beautiful:

I had this car with me in BG for my senior year (1980-81), and the thing I remember most about it was that when it rained, it would stall out, and we had to stick a screwdriver in the carburetor to start it.  This was my first year with Hubs, and he was often the person standing out in the rain with the screwdriver - like on my graduation day!  

Aphro moved with me to Sidney when I got my first teaching job, she took us on our honeymoon in 1982, and was with us when we moved to Dayton in 1983.  I got to know the mechanics at the garage in Sidney very well because Aphro and I spent a lot of time there!  That car was a nightmare, and in retrospect, I can't believe we put up with it as long as we did! Among her other problems, her side panels rusted out - she wasn't very pretty in the end!   Only 20somethings with no money have the patience for all that car drama!

In October of 1983 my father bought me a car that he got from someone he worked with - a salesman, I think. We got it for $1000.  It was a chocolate brown 1980 Buick Skylark which we named Teddy because it was the color of a teddy bear.  I remember distinctly that it had over 90,000 miles on it when we got it, but Dad was ok with that because it was "highway miles" from someone he knew.    It was fairly reliable for a car of that age, and it moved with us from Dayton to Lima in 1986. We kept Teddy until August of 1989 when we sold him for $500 - he had 162,000 miles on him at that time!  Here is a photo of him sitting in front of OHS in 1989:

On July 7, 1989 we got Berry - a blue 1985 Ford LTD (see - blue...berry - get it?) that we bought at a dealership on Cable Road in Lima (that is no longer there). [In fact, it might have been the same Ford dealership where my dad bought the Marquis!]   We paid $4,470.90 for it and it had 45,173 miles on it.  

The big drama with this car happened the day we went to pick it up.  We had selected it one day, and when we went back the next day to get it, someone at the dealership had accidently put it on the truck to go to auction.  I CRIED!  Obviously, they got it back for us!  We had this car until May of 1993 when we sold him for $500 with 102,170 miles on.  

Next was Steve.  He was a 1988 Mercury Sable that we got in May of 1993 for $6133.68 at Delpha Motors.  He came with 71,254 miles on him.  We had him until 1997.  He was a good car, but his top was fading badly, so he was a little unsightly at the end. We referred to him as "balding".   His name came from a billboard we saw as we were driving shortly after we got him.  I really liked the long light panel in the front!

In October 1998 we sold Steve for $500.  He had over 126,000 miles on him. 

 At that time I was driving a station wagon that my dad had.  I think he gave it to us around the time we were moving from our apartment on Lakewood to the house on Spencerville Rd (summer of 1997).   The station wagon was named Bob.  BOB the COW = Big Ol' Buick - Cave On Wheels.  One day I drove him to school at Ottoville, and the shop teacher asked me if I would be interested in selling it - so I did - for $5000 in Nov. of '98.  Here is a generic internet photo of what Bob looked like.  It was GINORMOUS!  Dad really liked the car and thought it was great, but I had no attachment to Bob - he was too big for us.  I never really felt in control when I was driving Bob.

On Nov. 3, 1998, I bought a 1996 Red Sable from Raabe Ford in Delphos.  It had been leased for 2 years by a retired English teacher from Delphos.  This was the first car I really picked out for myself because I genuinely liked it and didn't settle for something cheap just to get by.  I jokingly called her my Mid-life Crisis Car because she was red.

I loved my red Sable, but for some reason never really named her (Cherry?) - she was definitely female.   Red Sable moved us from Lima to Westerville in 2001.  This was our first car that had fold-down rear seats for hauling big stuff.  Very cool!  I LOVED this car!  She had over 124,000 miles on her when we sold her. Towards the end of her life, she had transmission issues.  She got a rebuilt one, but she was never the same after that.  In September of 2008, I sold her for $600 to a custodian who worked in my building who got it for her teenage daughter.  

Next came Sparky - a 2006 PT Cruiser that came with 17,000 miles on.  We got him in July 2007.  I had a friend in my golf league who had an eggplant PT Cruiser, and it really caught my attention.  She let me sit in it, and I was amazed at how comfortable it was and how well it fit me, so I went looking for one.  I did some online research, and then contacted Byers Chrysler and asked them to find a blue one for me.  They found one in Michigan and had cruise control and a moonroof put in for me.  I paid about $16K for him.  

Sparky has been our all time favorite car.  He fits us very well physically and suits our lifestyle.  He is by far the most versatile car we've had.  He moved a lot of stuff in 2010 when we were closing out my parents' home.  

Sadly, Sparky was rear-ended on July 7.  State Farm has chosen to total him even though the damage is mostly cosmetic and doesn't affect drivability.  No one was hurt.  The woman driving the '03 Ford Explorer said her brakes went out.  

He's had some other issues in the last year - engine mount issues that lead to vibration.  He's also never had a very effective air conditioning system.  I really didn't feel he was very reliable anymore, and even before the accident, I was starting to consider a new car.  Maybe this was his time, and the accident was just the last straw?  Sparky and his 78,000 miles will be surrendered sometime in the next week or two.  We will cry, but we will move on....  

Here's a quick summary:

1 - '69 Mercury Marquis Brougham

2 - '76 Plymouth Volare

3 - '80 Buick Skylark

4 - '85 Ford LTD

5 - '88 Mercury Sable - Gray

6 - Buick Roadmaster Stationwagon

7 - '96 Mercury Sable - Red

8 - '06 Chrysler PT Cruiser

Stay tuned for news of what's ahead!  

Thanks for reading - come back again soon!

:)Amy

P.S.  Sparky was towed away on Tuesday 7-26-16,  with 78017 miles on him.  He was taken to Insurance Auto Auction in Grove City.  Somebody is going to get a great deal!