3 First Cars

So, how did I get the Nova?

First things first.  I have 3 first cars.  Here is how.  When I was 14 years old or so, my parents bought my step-brother and I a 1964 Chevy Impala.  

This is not my car, and it's not my photo, but this looks like my car if you can picture the red painted faded to almost pink.

It was my step-grandmother’s car, and they bought it for $500.  It was red and huge.  I can not say whether or not my step-brother hated or not, but I believe that we both hated that car.  It was a land yacht.  2 doors and the trunk would rival some of today’s truck beds.  Our friends made fun of it, something fierce.  I really think that if we knew what we had then, both of us would have been much more appreciative of the car and taken better care of it.  It was a car, however, so my step-brother drove it.  It was a lot better than the bicycle that he was on a couple of months earlier and the one I was still on at the time.  My parents said they were buying it for both of us to share to get out of committing buying me a car in just 2 years.  Even today, I think of that car as the one that got away.  I have a 60 Impala poster from the showroom floor hanging in my living room.  It came from when my grandfather ran the Chevrolet dealership when I was young. 

So that was probably my first car, but I never really drove it, and in 2 years my step-brother had pretty much ragged it out.  

When I was 16, I was given a car by my grandfather.  It was a 1976 Impala. 

This is not my car, and it's not my photo. It does look like my car if you can picture it tree bark brown and faded.

Impala’s had changed a lot in 10 years.  This was a 4 door monster that my grandfather had taken on his rural mail route every day but Sunday the last 10 years.  Needless to say it had transmission problems from day one.  I got to drive it a little bit, but it was never reliable.  I ended up selling it for scrap before I ever left town in it.  I can only remember driving around in it one time, and I remember changing the tire on it and messing up the fender.  That was the day I learned what a bumper jack was.  That was my second first car.

By this time, my parents said they would pay $5oo for a car, like they did a couple of years ago.  I had the scrap money, and I worked during the summer.  So I started looking for my real first car.  

After a lot of looking, and not knowing what I really wanted, my step-father and I agreed on a 1979 Chevy Nova.  

This not my car, and it's not my photo, but it looks like my car. Mine had red pin stripes and stock wheels. I was always looking for cool hubcaps.

I remember that he threw in an extra $50 because it was such a good deal, and he didn’t want me to go over budget.  I also borrowed money to buy the car on a 90 day loan.  I think I have been paying for this lesson ever since.   

There were things I liked about this car and things I didn’t.  I learned what a straight 6 is.  I learned that you can bust the oil pan going too fast down a dirt road.  I learned how to change spark plugs and wires.  To get the oil changed, and that a good stereo will drown out some pretty bad sounds while going down the road. 

The 1979 Nova was my first car.  The one I got to drive around in.  The one I would go on dates in.  The one that would teach me cars are freedom.  

My friends made fun of it.  I was insecure about it.  I am NOT a car guy.  Again,  those are the things I wish I’d known back then.  I could have made that car cool with my attitude.  I did it with other things.  Music I liked. Jam shorts before they were a thing.  Bucket hats.  But I was insecure about the car.  

I washed it a lot.  Cleaned it out a lot.  Tried to make it look nice.  I still know the lines of that car.  

So what does that mean for today?

It means that when I was trying to sell a Kia that we had, and someone said they had a Nova that their dad had had as part of the payment.  I thought it over and jumped at the chance.  

There are a couple things here though--I thought I had a 74 Nova as my first car.  I now realize that it was 79.  And I am NOT a car guy, or I wasn’t until this car started sitting in the driveway.