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My first car had been my father's, then he gave it to me.
It was a 1962 Chevy Bel Air, black paint, red interior, 6 cylinder with
"3 on the tree" (column-mounted 3 speed manual for you young 'uns).

This car was a money pit. My first road trip as a new driver was to drive
from eastern Mass to the 1969 Woodstock music festival in Bethel, NY. What a pain.
The car had no power (235 cubic inch 6 cylinder) and got only 11 MPG! Plus it used oil.

It constantly over heated and needed to have water added.

The worst thing about the car was the linkage in front of the firewall
on the engine side. We all know which way our elbows can bend. Well,
the linkage would do a backwards elbow thing, requiring me to stop in bad
places, lift the hood, jiggle the linkage back into position, and then I could
continue. It might do this several times a day, or be OK for a few days.

My 2nd car was a 1963 Mercury Monterrey with the "breezeway" back window.
This window was a power window. It was the rear windshield and was on an
angle. The car was maroon with a white painted roof. It had a 390 cubic inch
V8 with another 3 on the tree. My friend, the handy one, installed a Hurst
floor shifter when the white metal on the column shifter broke from too much speed
shifting. A carburetor fire unfortunately finished this one off.

Although I'm a dedicated stick shift driver to this day, I have had some automatics
in the mix. One of my favorite cars of all of them was a 1969 Olds Cutlass Supreme,
350 cubic inch V8, 4 barrel, with an awesome quick-shifting TurboHydramatic. I
bought this car for $450 with 89,013 miles on the clock and drove it until 176,000
miles when the head gasket blew.

It was icy blue with a darker blue vinyl top.
I got $150 from a guy's insurance when he bumped my back bumper, and the
neighbor gave me $150 for it. So I only had about $150 in it for a fun car that
gave me 87,000 miles of service.

I sold this car to my neighbor, who was T-boned by a kid running a stop sign.
The Cutlass was wrapped around a pole, but when the tow truck driver came to take
it away, he turned the key for grins, and that 325 horse Rocket Olds fired right up.

SIA