My First Car

The first car I owned was a 1953 Chevrolet utility sedan. The utility sedan was a two door car with a plywood board in the back were the seats would go. The car that I had was originally a telephone company car. Back in 1963 my neighbor sold it to me for the price of a tire he just put on it. The cost was $16.

I placed a couple of galvanized buckets in the back for seats and my sister told all her friends that I had a car with bucket seats. When they had the chance to ride in the car they were not impressed. Eventually I was able to buy a set of seats at a junkyard.

The car had multiple colors of paint showing through, my dad told me to get a painted. I found you cannot put a primer on in the sun with a brush. I drove around with a rust red primer on for a long time. Dad and mom went on vacation and I was told to have it painted by the time he got back. I selected a beautiful Rustoleum red paint. My dad was not happy with my color selection. He said it looked like a fire engine and wondered if I was going to a fire somewhere. Mom said to dad, you told him ti paimt it but you never said what color.

One day taking my brother to the swimming pool on Hall Road in Columbus Ohio, the hood came loose in wrap itself around the windshield. That was an exciting ride. I also found how hard it was to find a new hood for a utility sedan. Nothing in the junkyards fit. So, the rest of the time I owned that car it had a huge dent in the hood and a very rough paint job.

After owning the car about a year of the clutch went out. Not having the money to repair it, the car went to the scrap yard. The next car I owned was a 1957 or was a 59 Rambler station wagon. That story we will be told in the next blog.