Miles's blog

People can get nostalgic for anything if it has an emotional connection for them.  Apparently there is a group of people in California who are afficiandos of 1970 Japanese cars.  These are the original imported small cars which were popular for being cheap.  Toyotas, Datsuns, Mazdas, and Hondas.  They call these vehicles “Japanese Nostalgic Cars,” a euphemism if I ever heard one.

Reading this article reminded me of a conversation I had with Susan where she was telling me about her first car, a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle. Since Susan was born in 1964 the car was only slightly younger than she was.  Like most Beetle owners she had trouble with the poor heat and minimal defrosting.  Ironically, those old VWs possessed good traction in the snow with their tiny engine right over the back wheels, but you could not see out the window.  This led Susan to drive her car, with excellent control, right off the street and into a horse pasture.  No horses were injured. Susan did say she spent good money to put a top-flight stereo in the old car, putting her priorities straight even at that young age.

All of us remember our first car.  Mine was a 1968 Buick Skylark, blue with a black top.  It was my mom’s.  I was one of the few students in my high school to have my own car, which dramatically improved my popularity.  Because it was a mom car, and not the kind of vehicle you would give to a 16-year old, it had nice amenities like power windows, air conditioning, and a rear defroster.  Those were not universal then.  Of course, FM radio was still somewhat of a novelty and the car had only an AM radio.  Channels were changed by pushing the buttons, causing the tuner to physically slide around the dial.  This was not a big problem as there were not a lot of radio stations to listen to.  

I have had a lot of cars through the years.  At one point I was basically broke and all I could afford was a Gremlin.  This was in 1977 and I don’t recall the year of my car, but it had over 100,000 miles when I got it.  That car was a piece of garbage. I could not tell you how fast it went from 0-60 because I don’t think I ever got it to 60.  It always broke down and one day it just stopped in the middle of the street and would never start again.  I told the tow truck people to just keep it because it was not worth fixing.  

I had a succession of Volkswagen Rabbits. My first one was very basic.  Because I could not drive a stick shift at that time I bought an automatic transmission which put a big strain on that tiny four-cylinder engine.  Still, I loved that car.  That was the car I had when I drove to law school from Chicago.  The only items I could keep were what would fit in my car.  Everything had no place to be stored and had to go.  Rabbits were not too big, so my stereo and record collection were sold off.  I am still sad.  I traded that Rabbit in for a four-speed version after I learned to drive a stick, and then I got a souped-up version called a GTI.  I doubt a Volkswagen was anybody’s idea of a hot rod, but at least this one had some get-up-and-go.

Later I switched, like most people in Colorado, to SUVs, finally settling on my current vehicle which I have had for 11 years and 123,000 miles and which I fully intend to keep forever.  I don’t much like cars, and I don’t really get nostalgic over my past vehicles.  But it is fun to talk to everyone about their first cars.