This question came up as I was tooling around with my son Jack last week. I was wondering what his four year old brain is holding onto as far as information about the family cars he’s occupied in his time. I know he fondly remembers the, “big green truck” and he’ll probably remember my wife’s horrendous Pacifica, too.
My first car memories? They were being in the back seat of my parents’ 1980 AMC Concord wagon. That baby had simulated wood grain on the sides, a tan-ish exterior, a tan-ish interior, all wheel drive, and virtually no power. I don’t remember the no power part, but look up the numbers for an AMC inline six in 1980 and try to not laugh. The best part about that car? My dad had both my sister and I convinced that the small AMC logo on the steering wheel was the trigger button for a selective ejection seat. He’d bust that line out when either of us started piping up in the back seat or doing something dumb. Sad part? We believed him lock, stock, and barrel. Irrational fear is an effective parenting technique…just saying. They then went on to buy a 1986 Taurus wagon, which was like a space ship when we first got it in 1986. 10 years later it was an Eagle Vision of the “cab forward” era. Yeah, there tastes were always a little off center.
So what’s your story? What is the first car you remember riding around in as a kid and what about it do you remember?
1st Car I remember riding in ? The old mans 57 Chevy Bel Air coupe complete with factory 4 barrel , dual exhausts etc
Most significant first car I remember . A friend of the families Austin Healy 3000 … and then the 65 Stingray convertible he traded the Healy in on .
A 1978 Honda Civic. I can remember what the outside looked like, but that was about it.
My mother’s 1966 Ford Mustang. Red with a black top. I do remember her first new car she purchased off the show room floor, a 1973 AMC Hornet. I was so bummed, because the Javelin looked way cooler. Ironically, my very first car was a ’71 AMC Javelin. Good times.
My Dad’s late ’40’s Chrysler four door. It had scratchy (to a kid) mohair type interior, with a big velvet rope across the back of the front seat. That’s what you hung on to, no seatbelts! It had a huge, flat rear floor area I could play on for hours during a trip. The car was massive. No A/C, now power steering, no brakes to speak of, lousy radio, no tintied windows. It was amazing! Everyone should drive a car from that era in stock, unmodifed form at least once. On the highway, in town, parking, the whole lot, just to experience what they were like. Massive, massive, things!
I had a 47 Chrysler for a while. Those boats were a bear to handle but they sure rode good for the day. I don’t remember why I sold it, but I would kinda like to have it back.
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Mom and Dad’s ’64 Buick Skylark Sport Wagon complete with skylights over the rear seat. It was a medium blue with matching interior and Dad got the little 300 nail head V8 because we were moving to Fairbanks, AK for the Air Force. The little ’62 Skylark coupe they had before had the all aluminum 215, but it wouldn’t survive the harsh, cold winters up there.
Mom made me a booster seat to improve my view of the scenery going by, but I would also open the back door to see the pavement speed by. Mom was not pleased. We also had a futon made that fit when you folded down the rear seat for naps on the road.
The great little family wagon got left behind in Okinawa when we got stationed back to Omaha. I was 8 or 9 when I last saw it. Still have fond memories of that car.
Dad’s 1968 Buick GS California w/ a 455 and a 4 speed
A 1965 Buick Wildcat 4-door sedan. Dark green body with light green painted roof. Wildcat 445 power! There second car was a 1968 Camaro conv’t with 6 cyl/3 spd stick.
The first car I remember riding in was a light brown 1959 Ford Ranch Wagon ( the family car from when I was an infant till I was in 1st grade). The most significant was getting a ride arouind the block in my Uncle’s Austin Healey 3000 (Everyone has a “cool uncle” right?). The most vivid car memory was when my dad brought home a 1967 Mercury Cougar and the hole family came out to the curb to warch the headlight doors go up and down!!
50 chevy coupe moving from Alabama to the Mohave desert .We had a water bag hanging on front and the swamp cooler on the window, it was july …i’ll never forget that.
57 Ford fairlane 4 door
I remember it was Black and you could start it with a screw driver… I did, when I was 5… scared the crap out of my Dad.
1954 Ford 2 door, 3 on the tree. Coming home from town we got behind a big slow building being moved down the highway so my Dad drove down into the ditch and passed them. I thought it was great and never forgot it (and he wondered why I was hell on wheels when I got my license).
Our ’66 Mercury wagon that my dad bought new when I was 2 years old. Tan interior, white exterior with the fake forrest and a 390.
Mom’s light blue ’64 Chevy II four door was my first memory. I also remember car pooling to kindergarten with a nice old lady up the street who drove a ’68 Coupe de Ville and being amazed at how that car was as big as our living room!
I wish I could say my cousins 39 Ford 2 door sedan that I experienced my first drag race in when I was 6. But it wasn’t. It’ was my parents 51 Ford 4 door sedan. It was about a year old then with a Flathead V8 and 3 on the tree. It wasn’t as fast as my cousin’s car, but when Daddy came down hard on the loud pedal, which wasn’t often, it would crap and get.
I think it was a 62 or 64 Corvair,Dad had both at one time.
I remember going to the beach riding on the fold down seat and burning the back of my legs on the metal trim.
it was either a 70 butternut yellow Nova with a gold interior and an I6 or a 72 Ford LTD that was green on green on green….
My parents ’72 Blazer, top off, 4th of July 1981 in the Gospel Hump area of central Idaho, we got snowed on, which is probably why remembered it at 4
I wonder if kids growing up the last twenty years will have fond memories of riding in Mom’s Chrysler minivan, or the family’s Ford Explorer when they get older.
I am curious if Brian’s little Jack will grow up and sigh when he sees a Pacifica on the road. That’s not likely to happen much ten years from now, but I wonder.
1968 Toyota Corona. I was around 2 years old.
My dad’s 1967 Plymouth Barracuda fastback, white with a red interior.
My parents 49 Merc, 2 dr sedan. Kinda dates me doesn’t it?
My 57 Plymouth Savoy. Dad drove it when I was a kid. I still have it too.
My Dads 1957 Ford Fairlane 2 door in 1966-67? Not a 500, as he liked to point out, but the bare bones Fairlane. I remember seeing the road pass under us through the holes in the floorboard!! Dad was a Marine Corps Pilot and the car lived its life in southern salt enviroments.
1974 Plymouth Fury station wagon. Big, brown and ugly, but a nice car. I remember the rear facing seat in the back, going to the drive in movies in it, and my older brother driving it in high school.
1966 Chevy Impala, dark blue four door. We took lots of family trips in that thing.
1955 Ford, it was red.
donuts in the snow with my dad in a 59 beetle. which was traded up to a 61 valiant 100 wagon slant 6 and then a 67 coronet 440 318la was the first car i “drove” sitting in dads lap
I remember sitting in the back of my dad’s blue 1958 Olds ’88 watching Raquel Welch in 1,000,000 Years BC at the Citrus Heights Drive In. I also remember my mom didn’t care for the movie.
My dad’s 67 Plymouth Satellite he bought new, I remember the white interior and the buckets and console because the console was so shiny. I was about 3 years old at the time.
1956 Olds 88. Two tone green, a/c & power windows.
My Dad’s 1951 GMC cabover with a 4-71 and a 10 speed. He used to run frozen fish to the mink farms out in Duluth or Winnipeg and horse meat back to Calo Dog food in Boston. My mom had a beat up 46 chevy wirh and engine out of a stock car that one of his buddies ran at Seeconk Raceway. We didn’t have a lot of money back then.
My brother’s buddy had a 53 Bel-Air. Went crusin all around south Chicago smoking cigarettes (I was 14) That hissing sound he said was FUEL INJECTION. which I later realized was a vacuum leak. (.on a clapped out 6-cyl)..This was the early 60″s
’67 Dodge Dart 2 door, metallic blue. I remember the vent windows up front. I remember the vents in the front footwells. We had air conditioning. AM radio only. I remember the blue vinyl bench seat. I remember my child safety seat — set up in the front seat! I remember being scared when we went through the car wash. I remember going to Wesson’s (fast food joint in Queens, NYC) on Saturdays. I remember sitting in back, not wearing my seatbelt one winter day, and us getting hit from behind (at relatively low speed) by a red Pontiac A body. I remember the headache that I had for the rest of the day. I remember that the car was pretty beat up from its life in NYC. We sold it to the building superintendent when we moved to Miami in ’73..
55 Ford from El Paso to Wisconsin. Riding in the back dash all the way with 5 other family members. Oh waht a blast.
My father’s 1960 Chevrolet Brookwood wagon.
Silver with a carnation/red interior.
Man,to this day, I love that car more than ever.
I loved her even then.
Some jokers stole that car and joy-rided until she was out of gas.
Then, they broke out very window and smashed anything made of glass.
What a sad sight,seeing her without glass and all windows broken out.
The only time my father denied me a ride in that car was on the journey home after recovering the car.(Broken windows and much broken glass)
Watching my father behind the wheel from my uncle’s car driven ahead of the wagon was something I’ll always remember as we stopped to get gas.
My father had a DAF 66 in the mid 70’s, they said it was elastic rubber band powered because it had a 50hp engine and a continually variable “variomatic” transmission. Ugly looking square box.
First vehicle I remember riding in was my grandfather’s 1948 Ford F-4 dumptruck. This was back in the mid ’90s. I remember the scratchy seat cover, bouncy ride, flathead exhaust note and whiney straight-cut gearbox. My father and I still got it and plan to restore it once we finish the ’69 LeMans Sport Coupe
1965 Volkswagon Bus. The family hauler. 7 kids + Mom and Dad. Many many memories. Sitting up front between mom and dad waiting for the next stop light, ice scraper ready in hand. My job in the winter was to quickly stand up and scrape the frost from the INSIDE of the windsheilds. Fighting with my siblings to sit on the heater “tube” in the back in the winter. The only real source heat in that ice box. All of us getting out and pushing…. stuck in the snow, running out of gas, breaking down….. My brother, throwing newspapers out the back, Dad drove through a big dip and the open hatch hit my brother in the head HARD! I thought it killed him. My oldest brother driving it through….anything. Forging waterways, sidewalks, parking blocks, Motorcycle trails….. The gas gauge with the letter R for empty. I was so puzzled by that. Ignition key that was round with “VW” stacked in the center, thought that was so cool. The scar that’s on my left forfinger to this day from smashing it in one of the doors. The day it came home with the front end smashed. End of the line for the old bus…………
1967 to 1973 age 3 to 8
Steve weim55 Colorado
A tan Dodge sedan, ’61 or ’62.