Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Drive Down Memory Lane: Family Cars

Another challenge from Randy Seaver of  GeneaMusings. This sounds really interesting!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Drive down Memory Lane - what were your family cars - from childhood to now, year, model, color, features.  Can you remember?

2)  Share your memories with us in your own blog post, in a Facebook post or a comment on this post.  Please comment on this post if you write somewhere else.

This is a great meme and I had written about cars a few years back with the Book of Me. I probably have more photos but they haven't been scanned yet.

The first car my parents had when I was a baby was black. The shot I have of it is when my parents left for the honeymoon. 

The first car I remember was a Chevrolet station wagon, probably a Nova. I remember riding in the back with my younger siblings and waving to people in other cars.

Then my parents got an American Motors Rambler station wagon. It also could fit our growing family of six. Back in the day, seat belts and car seats were not used much. My brother's carseat was something that slipped over the back of the seat and had a steering wheel with a horn.

Sometime in the 60s my Nana had to give up her car and we got her old 50-something Volkswagen. The kind with the oval back window. Us kids loved riding in the way back, when we were small enough to fit.

My dad got the use of a 1970 Ford Country Squire when he worked at LoRay. The way back had back-facing seats and now our family of eight fit very nicely!

My Mom finally got her own car, a 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix. She loved that car. It had power everything. I used it to get my driver's license and when asked to do a three-point turn, I ended up making a U-turn. Of course the tester made me try again.

My dad had a bit of a mid-life crisis and bought a Corvette. It was bright orange and stood out on the highway, especially the fast lane when Dad loved to drive. He had quite a few tickets with that car. 

My first car was also a Rambler Ambassador. I drove it to Cal State Hayward my first few years. My brother drove it after I started taking BART to school. He never checked the oil and water and the head cracked. Good-bye Rambler.

The first car I bought on my own was a 1972 Toyota Corona I purchased from the Ford dealer in Walnut Creek. It was baby-blue and had four doors. I drove it to school and work, and carted sisters around. Later, I traded it in for the next car.

When I got my BART job, I purchased a new car, a 1978 Ford Pinto. It had the "wood-panel" sides and was bright yellow. I would never buy another yellow car--it attracts bees. My friend, Beth, and I took it to Yosemite one winter and slept in the back. My husband and I used it on our honeymoon to Monterey. This car was later donated to College Park High School auto shop program.

My next car was a 1990 Ford Tempo, also four-door, and had a standard transmission. It was an easy purchase, done through a broker at the credit union. I loved that car. It did well when our daughters were young and I even carted Girl Scouts on field trips. But alas, it had issues and was traded in for a larger car.

Another easy purchase was the 1999 Ford Explorer I bought from the owner of the dealership in Fairfield. No bargaining, just a great price. This car is still with us. It has been in the snow (with chains--it's not four-wheel-drive), camping, road trips to Oregon, Colorado, and Southern California. It's the main car that my husband drives.

Our current car is a 2015 Nissan Leaf, all-electric. It's a pretty blue color. It can only go about 80 miles on a charge, so is perfect for getting around town. Someday, would like to get one with a bit more range.

My husband also has a 1970 GMC pickup and a 1980 Ford Pinto. During the teenage years, the daughters drove 1990 Toyota Camry until it was in an accident and a 1989 Honda Accord, until it too was totaled.

It seems like we have had a lot of cars, but not really. We tend to drive them at least 10 years and the Explorer is pushing 20.

Copyright © 2017 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.