for some reason my earliest memory of being in a car is a station wagon traveling across Kansas for vacation. I must have been 3-5 yrs old.. The first auto i took notice of was my uncles (BIG-FOOT) ford.. i remember i could easily walk underneith that pickup as a kid.. and minus the decals, it looked very much like the monster truck.
What's your earliest car memory?
- Thread starter cadfaeltex
- Start date
- Status
Later 1940's Dad hsad a Hudson Terraplane, big car as I remember. Dad loved it, Mom called it the Black Moria, what ever that is, and she hated it.
My mother loosing the brakes on our EDSEL on a small hill in Lafayette, IA. I was in the back and I recall screaming, "push the "R" button!". I dont know how I knew that at age 5 ... .
I typed a half a page response of good memories, but they disappeared.
Oh well.
Oh well.
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2025
My dad had a 1978 Monte Carlo. It had T-tops. Super rare for the time. I remember it to this day. Next car was a Malibu Wagon. Gold.
Last edited:
Breaking my Mom's '88 Ford Tempo. IIRC, I mixed up the plug wires. I dont remember how old I was. I wanna say 8-10.
Dad's 58 Merc. Cousin had a 50 Merc. I was just a itty bitty fellow but I remember thinking that 50 was about the prettiest looking thing I'd ever seen
Neighbor that was renting my grand parents garage let me sit on his lap and steer old 2106 Lada while going slowly. I was like 5-6 y.o.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
The parents 1950 Studebaker. A really ***** car.
1965 or 67 Fire engine red buick wildcat convertible with white top; my father got rid of our corvair or rambler to buy it used. Spent a night sleeping in the booth at howard johnsons in possibly danvers mass, when I was about 5, when my father tried to drive from maine to ct, into an approaching snow storm. we left the vehicle in the middle of the highway at the state police's command and my father carried me and my brother across the median strip, knee deep in snow.
I can count on one hand the "bad decisions" my father made when I was a kid, this was one of them.
I can count on one hand the "bad decisions" my father made when I was a kid, this was one of them.
Last edited:
-- Riding the school bus and seeing what I now figure is a late 60s pontiac Tempest or GTO. Thought that the low beam headlights were "wrong" being on top of the stacked lights.
-- playing with my dad's keys, I could barely reach the door lock standing up at age 2 or so.
-- my dad replaced a cool 1970s LTD wagon with a 1980 ford fairmont. The rear windows didn't roll down all the way. In the LTD, they did, and I could put my elbow on the door sill "just like dad". I asked Mom why the windows didn't go down all the way, and instead of saying she didn't know, or we got a cheap car, she said it was so I wouldn't throw stuff out of the car.
-- My mom got a Plymouth turismo something-or-other and my dad put an oil pressure gauge in it. But it blew off a week later and caught the brand new car on fire. Remember getting yanked out of the rear seat, then dad running over a grassy knoll to "call the fire department". Car was a total loss.
-- playing with my dad's keys, I could barely reach the door lock standing up at age 2 or so.
-- my dad replaced a cool 1970s LTD wagon with a 1980 ford fairmont. The rear windows didn't roll down all the way. In the LTD, they did, and I could put my elbow on the door sill "just like dad". I asked Mom why the windows didn't go down all the way, and instead of saying she didn't know, or we got a cheap car, she said it was so I wouldn't throw stuff out of the car.
-- My mom got a Plymouth turismo something-or-other and my dad put an oil pressure gauge in it. But it blew off a week later and caught the brand new car on fire. Remember getting yanked out of the rear seat, then dad running over a grassy knoll to "call the fire department". Car was a total loss.
Dad's [RIP] 1960 Ford Galaxie..We took on a lot of trips in the summer..Do not recall what V8 was in it [think it was the 292] but it ran awesome..It even had ice cold A/C..He kept it for 10 years..My mom had a couple of Impalas [which were OK] but the Ford was our favorite.
My dad had a grey Buick...back sloped down, probably a late 40 something. I remember going to the garage, maybe to meet him when he came home from work. Not sure how I remember that, they later told me he traded that in before I was three. I guess it was for the yellow mid-50's Merc that I remember liking the style of.
I don't have memories of riding in either of those though...guess because back then, Dad worked and Mom was home with the kids and did all the kid-carting. She had a '53 light green over dark green Olds that she loved. I just recall a million trips in that thing and how huge it was inside...there was room to sit and play on the backseat floor for crying out loud! And I recall so many times where we had 4 or 5 kids, or maybe 6 sometimes, in back, and we'd play "crush the end kid" every time we took a turn. (Good thing we didn't have Hooligan's Studebaker I guess!)
Later we had a '58 Plymouth wagon with the pushbutton gears. Mom used to take half the neighborhood to the beach (we lived in Daytona), stay all day...brought a little grill and basically tailgated at the beach. Great times!
Oh yeah, Dad had the jet-exhaust T-bird too. Same deal, sliding steering wheel...'cept I don't recall any backfiring ;-). His was a '62. Cadfaeltex is right, they changed syles in '64. I think the jet style was '61-'63.
I don't have memories of riding in either of those though...guess because back then, Dad worked and Mom was home with the kids and did all the kid-carting. She had a '53 light green over dark green Olds that she loved. I just recall a million trips in that thing and how huge it was inside...there was room to sit and play on the backseat floor for crying out loud! And I recall so many times where we had 4 or 5 kids, or maybe 6 sometimes, in back, and we'd play "crush the end kid" every time we took a turn. (Good thing we didn't have Hooligan's Studebaker I guess!)
Later we had a '58 Plymouth wagon with the pushbutton gears. Mom used to take half the neighborhood to the beach (we lived in Daytona), stay all day...brought a little grill and basically tailgated at the beach. Great times!
Oh yeah, Dad had the jet-exhaust T-bird too. Same deal, sliding steering wheel...'cept I don't recall any backfiring ;-). His was a '62. Cadfaeltex is right, they changed syles in '64. I think the jet style was '61-'63.
Being in the back of a woodie station wagon with that [censored] fold down seat all the way in the rear. Also my Uncle's 1980 Baby Blue Camaro.
1962 or '63 Rambler American station wagon, push button transmission.
In the summer of '63 moved our family of seven and all of our possessions in a U-Haul trailer, including my sister's piano, from LA to Milwaukee, WI over a span of five days.
In the summer of '63 moved our family of seven and all of our possessions in a U-Haul trailer, including my sister's piano, from LA to Milwaukee, WI over a span of five days.
My uncle had a '72 or '73 Corvette, metallic blue with side pipes. I called the pop-up headlights frog eyes.
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
The family 1965 Galaxie 500,died in the middle of main street,with seemingly no other motorists on the road.
One of my earliest memories was in my mom's 1964 Galaxie 500 convertible. She parked it on the hill at the farm. I'm like 3 and curious. This is obviously long before gear shift locking. You can guess the rest. Fortunately, there was nothing in my way, and I didn't panic and jump out the car or do anything similarly foolish - I just coasted to a gentle stop and saw my mom running. I don't remember much else, so I obviously didn't get paddled too much.
The family 1965 Galaxie 500,died in the middle of main street,with seemingly no other motorists on the road.
One of my earliest memories was in my mom's 1964 Galaxie 500 convertible. She parked it on the hill at the farm. I'm like 3 and curious. This is obviously long before gear shift locking. You can guess the rest. Fortunately, there was nothing in my way, and I didn't panic and jump out the car or do anything similarly foolish - I just coasted to a gentle stop and saw my mom running. I don't remember much else, so I obviously didn't get paddled too much.
+1 on being a great topic!
I strangely remember that my dad drove a brick red 1969 Buick Skylark (or Riviera?) when I was somewhere between 5 and 7. I would always ask him what the PRND21 meant, and he would always tell me that R meant racing. I also remember falling asleep in the back seat of that car trying to watch Star Wars at a drive in theater when it first came out.
When I was about to turn 15, my dad started asking me what type of car I wanted to drive when I got my license. I was still pretty clueless about cars, so I told him that I wanted something like mom was driving - a Ford Tempo. He gently pushed me in the direction of something that he would have been more interested in, like something from the 60's or 70's and I ended up getting a 1979 Grand Prix that we transplanted a Pontiac 400 into. I was hooked on cars by then and now with my 3 year old son, the circle is repeating itseld!
I strangely remember that my dad drove a brick red 1969 Buick Skylark (or Riviera?) when I was somewhere between 5 and 7. I would always ask him what the PRND21 meant, and he would always tell me that R meant racing. I also remember falling asleep in the back seat of that car trying to watch Star Wars at a drive in theater when it first came out.
When I was about to turn 15, my dad started asking me what type of car I wanted to drive when I got my license. I was still pretty clueless about cars, so I told him that I wanted something like mom was driving - a Ford Tempo. He gently pushed me in the direction of something that he would have been more interested in, like something from the 60's or 70's and I ended up getting a 1979 Grand Prix that we transplanted a Pontiac 400 into. I was hooked on cars by then and now with my 3 year old son, the circle is repeating itseld!
Originally Posted By: threeputtpar
When I was about to turn 15, my dad started asking me what type of car I wanted to drive when I got my license. I was still pretty clueless about cars, so I told him that I wanted something like mom was driving - a Ford Tempo.
You're almost as bad as I was. I wanted the 1983 Ford LTD midsize that was in taxi service. Unfortunately, I got what I wished for.
When I was about to turn 15, my dad started asking me what type of car I wanted to drive when I got my license. I was still pretty clueless about cars, so I told him that I wanted something like mom was driving - a Ford Tempo.
You're almost as bad as I was. I wanted the 1983 Ford LTD midsize that was in taxi service. Unfortunately, I got what I wished for.
Dad drove a 1940 Ford truck-that's probably the earliest vehicle memory. Somewhere around 1952 we bought a 1950 IH L110 that had been totaled in a flood. We overhauled it and used it for a farm field truck. I last remember seeing it used in the mid-1980's, but I'm not sure whatever happened to it.
- Status
