The History of my Cars

In 1966, I took a job with a Woolworth company in Marietta Ohio. Since at that time I did not own a car, I went to Marietta on the Greyhound bus. I worked at the Woolworth store as a manager trainee and receiving manager. One of the employees found out that I did not have a car and sold me a 57 Rambler station wagon for the princely sum of $75. Looking back, it was really a good deal. I drove the car for a considerable amount of time. Being young and foolish I had no fear of taking it on the highway. I drove it from Marietta Ohio to Columbus Ohio and from Marietta to Sandusky Ohio.

Most of the trips were to Sandusky where my future wife resided. This was about 200 miles one way which I made usually two times a month. The other feature that I found useful, was a front seats folded flat. I do not remember how long I had the car, it was less than a year as I was only in Marietta about a year. The car gave up the ghost one weekend  trip in Sandusky. Again lacking the funds to have it repaired,  it went to the junkyard. I made the trip back to Marietta on the Greyhound bus. It took around 12 hours,  it seemed like forever. I got back to Marietta in time to go to work.

My next car with a 1951 Chevrolet two-door. I only had it for a couple weeks. I bought it for $75, drove it to Sandusky one weekend, where the muffler went out. When I got back to Marietta I sold it for 50 bucks, I should have had it repaired.

My next car was a 1967 Ford Galaxy 500. My dad pretty much picked it out and I was happy with it. It was a nice green, power steering, power brakes and of course the radio.After I had it about two weeks some clown pulled out front of me. I was okay, the car suffered a damaged front fender and hood on the driver side. I owned the car until about 1968 or 69 when I felt I could not afford to continue to make the payments. I was married and 67 we moved to Akron in 67 and then Atlanta,  Georgia in 68. We traded the car for lower payments on a 1962 Pontiac Catalina.

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.