First Cars

I was asking Mike the other night about his favorite memories, and most of them had to do with cars.

It got me thinking about cars and the fact that my mother bought her own first car in 1945--a Chevrolet coupe, beige.  It was a 1940 model and cost her a thousand dollars, which she paid off in monthly payments of $75.  Her monthly wages were $125.

When she got it home, she discovered that the tires were bad.  Papa put it up on blocks until they could get rationing coupons for new tires.

What she remembers most is that her daddy--Papa--never did say, "I told you so."

Cars stopped being manufactured in 1941 and factories turned to war tanks and machines.  Nobody got a new car until car building resumed in the late 40s.  Carlene teases that she married my daddy shortly after that so he could help her pay off her car!  "But really, I never doubted I could do it."

I got my first car-of-my-own in 1990--a turquoise Acura Integra, brand new.  Before that, it had never occurred to me that I could actually own a car.