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What family car do remember the most while growing up?

We always talk about the towns, or the houses, or the schools we grew up in.

What about the cars?

My father had an Auto Body Shop.
Now . . .srangely enough . . . you'd think we'd grow up with the nicest car in the neighborhood. . .right?. . .no. 

We went thru a myriad of crashy cars that where always on the brink of being turned into classics, you just had to "wait and see". So we rode in them, hoping nobody from school saw us, until the next work of art prospect appeared on the yard.

Then one day my mom had it,  and made it known loud enough for the.whole neighborhood to hear, that she was done riding in garbagee cars.

I remember when my my Dad drove up in the Gran Torino Station Wagon. It was awesome! The back door was super long and super heavy, and the space inside, gigantic.
My brother, sister, and I would go in there and I swear we could run around, without even bumping into each other.

The seats, the back seats, they folded forward! I thought that's how space crafts must be.

It was red.

Posted - January 25, 2017

Responses


  • 5455
    It really wasn't the family car but I remember my dad's 1999 GMC pick up truck he used for farm work.  I remember it because one time he let my half brother drive it.  My half brother went off roading with it so when dad came home he found it buried up to its axles in the mud behind our house.
      January 25, 2017 6:36 PM MST
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  • Did they just. . .leave it there . . .for your dad to find?
      January 25, 2017 6:42 PM MST
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  • 5455
    Basically yes.  When dad came home he asked my half brother where he parked his truck and he just said It's out back.  In our house that usually meant one of the barns behind our house and not buried up to its axles in the field.  Dad didn't see where his truck was until the next morning when the sun came up.
      January 27, 2017 11:23 AM MST
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  • That's funny,
    there's no way I would have left my mom find the car like that!
    )
    Thank you Livvy.
      January 27, 2017 12:31 PM MST
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  • 17398
    My aunt lived with my mother, my sister, and me.  She had a Bel Air convertible 1965 (about) and mother had a Chevy Nova about the same year.  That was the "new" car.  Before that mother had a gray 1940s old round car  with that same smell all old cars had.  I remember that smell. My friend's brother-in-law taught us to drive a three on the column old pick up truck out on the roads by the river.  We had so much fun.  We were about 12 or 13.   To this day I've never owned a car without a clutch.  :)
      January 25, 2017 7:42 PM MST
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  • So many things to comment on...

    Chevy Nova, I remember that one clearly. I remember we had the.square headlight model. 
    Old car smell, that is so true. Everybody talks about the smell of new cars and how they all smell the.same. But nobody mentions the.same smell that comes.out of an old old car. Very distintive, regardless of its history. That's so very true!!
    My Dad taught me to drive a.tick on a big square Bread Van. And to this day I still drive.a stick.
    Do you drive a.stick now, still??
      January 25, 2017 11:07 PM MST
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  • 17398
    Yes, that what I meant by saying I've never owned a car without a clutch.  Never had an auto trans.  

    A bread van?   Now that sounds like fun!  
      January 26, 2017 3:10 AM MST
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  • Yes! The shifter was a loooooong curved stick that went from way up an elevated sit of sorts, to say down there on the floor. 
    My Dad (now I think that what I thought was him being trusting could have.actually been him trying to stay safe) after a couple of lessons took us, my brother and I, to a field and got out of the Van.
    I did alright, but my brother ended up jumping out the big door on the side and sending the Thing in slow motion into a ditch, with a very anticlimactic thump!
    That's real neat about the oath transmission. I wonder how many women can drive a stick nowadays.
    Or MEN, for that matter!!
    Thanks for responding T.
      January 26, 2017 9:19 AM MST
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  • 3523
    Austin Healey 3000.  Somehow this image does not convey the smell, the sound, or the feel of the wind in your hair.
    Image result for Austin healey 3000 royalty free images
      January 25, 2017 9:09 PM MST
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  • 17398
    That is beautiful!
      January 26, 2017 3:12 AM MST
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  • 2217
    Hillman Imp. I started driving, then my brother, then my mother. Cost £370, courtesy of Grandma's inheritance. Eventually scrapped, thoroughly rusted for £5.  
      January 26, 2017 3:22 AM MST
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  • I admit I had to look that one up, but once I did i recognise it immediately! 
    You've recreated the life cycle of a car right there, basically. 
    I had a van like that. A huge Econoline which I drove until I didn't want to fix it anymore.
    I still felt sad when the junk guy drove it away.
    Thanks Malizz.
      January 26, 2017 8:56 AM MST
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  • 1713
    I remember we had a big brown suburban. It was destroyed in a car accident, thanks to a drunk driver. My father, me and my three siblings were in it when that happened. The car that caused the accident was pretty much obliterated.  Then we got a big black suburban and had it for many years, that was the most memorable one. I remember, us being kids, we liked to pull at the ceiling in it and my parents were all mad because it was the fabric on the ceiling was drooping.
      January 26, 2017 6:17 AM MST
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  • Haha, the old sagging ceiling!! 
    Like the cracked dashboard, Unfailing sign of the.last years of a car. I remember my dad trying to come.up.with cheap.ways to fix that. There's none.
    That must have been scary!!!??
    I definitely understand your parents on getting upset at that one. )
    Thanks Patchouli.
      January 26, 2017 9:04 AM MST
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  • 3684
    I remember my Dad's first vehicles more than later ones.

    His first (in 1950s) was a BSA 650cc motorcycle, fitted with a sidecar after I arrived. He carried out all the servicing himself, very likely influencing my life-long interest and science and engineering.

    Then Ford car - I think the Model 10, the modern, larger version of the famous Ford Model 8. By now there were 5 of us!

    I recall a Hillman Minx "shooting-brake" - a term for something between estate-car and van, and probably reflecting the shooting-&-fishing types at whom such cars were often advertised. The modern equivalents are the Citroen Berlingo, Renault Kangoo, etc., but the earlier cars had conventional doors, not top-hinged hatches, to the rear luggage-space - or dog-space for the shooting-&-fishing owners. A curious memory of that Hillman was a white tile-effect finish impressed into the metal of the dashboard's central panel, and Dad would use the little squares like a spreadsheet grid to help him record its fuel consumption. I don't know its consumption but I think vaguely that petrol was about 1/6 a gallon (English): about 7.5p/gallon in modern UK currency! Maybe less... it's now priced in litres, helping disguise its near £6/gallon. (Ale is about £15 a gallon...) Oh, and spreadsheets didn't exist then, as far as I know! (Early 1960s)

    Dad also owned a Morris Minor Traveller for quite some years. This was a shooting-brake version of the Morris Minor, made by extending the bodywork backwards to replace the boot with a flat roof and near-vertical double rear doors. The Traveller was (still is, preserved) distinctive for its external, hardwood bodywork frame. 


    Later my parents took up motor-caravanning, and their first was one of the well-known VW vans with 'Devon' caravan-conversion, and the same air-cooled rear-engine as used in the equally familiar VW cars. We enjoyed a few family holidays with that caravanette, augmented by a tent for brother and I. (The term "camper-van" was still safely in its home country 3000+ miles West of the Cornish camp-site.)

    Its replacement was a Commer Commercials van with a very basic motor-caravan conversion. I can't remember the converters but it was quite Spartan so Dad refitted it, making it more comfortable. Sadly he fell ill and became no longer fit enough physically to drive this fairly heavy vehicle with its long gear-lever and manual-only steering, so the van languished in the garage for over 20 years with very low mileage from new on the clock, untouched while he drove a light Honda or similar with automatic transmission.


    My own first 4-wheel car, after a 250cc BSA "Star" motorcycle, 2 Bond "Minicars" (3-wheeler with Villiers 2-stroke engines driving the single front wheel) and a Reliant Robin van, was a VW, the famous "Bug" style; and this had been Dad's for a time. Later, with family memories in mind as well as genuine leisure support, I in turn owned at different times, 2 VW motor-caravans (one was the older type with 6V electrics and split windscreen) and a genuine Walker Conversions "Dormobile" caravanette. The latter was based on a GM/ Vauxhall Bedford CA van, with the same 1600cc petrol engine and 3-, later 4-, speed manual gearbox as used in some Vauxhall cars. They'd all be collectors' vehicles now!

    Oh, and the Commer has found a new loving home, after an expensive overhaul. I gather a friend of the new owner once borrowed it and racked up another garage bill by breaking down as a direct result of forgetting the owner's instruction on starting from cold, and so had driven several tens of miles in hilly country with the choke still closed. The choke was a control unfamiliar to him, used only to modern cars with electronically-controlled injectors replacing the nice, simple, easily-serviced carburettor!


    Summing up, I am not sure how much my family-car memories are influenced by vehicles being distinct; and how much by family experiences such as riding in a sidecar on a motor-cycle combination, and Dad meticulously servicing it, and the motor-caravanning holidays. This post was edited by Durdle at February 28, 2017 4:44 AM MST
      February 28, 2017 4:41 AM MST
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