Random Car Memories

A Boy Scout camping trip to Kerr Lake, me and Dad sleeping in the reclining seats of the car because the tent got flooded, a blue 1974 Austin Marina which sounds cool and exotic and British, and while it was actually British, it was a P.O.S. that would not go over 45 mph and the EGR warning light stayed on all the time, and I don't think we ever did figure out what EGR meant.

Me and Mom running around the car to switch seats at a stop sign with a couple cars behind us, because I was just learning how to drive and it was a 1977 Chevy Nova with a three-speed manual and the stop sign was at the top of a hill (the one at Albemarle and Hobbs) and I was scared I was going to roll back into the car behind me.

My first car, a 1977 Datsun B210 Honeybee, which is just as cool as it sounds, and which was bright yellow (of course!) and which got handed down to my older sister (how does that work?) and which I later found out she drove on the beach in Florida, but Mom and Dad didn't know she was in Florida, and then it broke down on the beach and I think I need to talk to Sis to find out the rest of the story.

Mom looking cute next to my Honda.

My second car, a 1978 Honda Civic hatchback, which actually is probably my favorite car I've ever owned, and although it was pretty sluggish off the line, could corner like a demon and could handle snowy roads like nobody's business, and even if you drove off into a snow drift, as long as you had a couple of big guys riding with you, you could pretty much lift it out of the snow drift back onto the road if, for example, you were in Boone visiting friends and doing stupid shit.

My best friend's 1976 Trans Am with a big bird on the hood and a 455 under, absolutely the coolest car ever made.

Dad's 1977 F150 Balloon
Chase Vehicle, a story of it's own

My parent's 1969 Plymouth Satellite station wagon, a battleship of a car, with a back seat and a "way-back" (the cargo area behind the back seat) with a chrome roof rack which you would never need because you could carry an entire living room suite inside, the car we drove on beach vacations and visits to Grandma, Rhonda and I riding in the "way-back" making sure none of the other's stuff crossed the invisible line down the middle.

My Dad's 1977 Datsun F10 two-door station wagon, which was probably HIS favorite car ever, but which several noted Auto magazines have identified as one of the ugliest cars ever (2nd to the AMC Pacer), yellow with a vinyl wood grain decal down each side, and which he let me drive to school on the first day I had my license, and man I thought I was cool! but then the pretty girl from Band wouldn't go out to lunch with me so I went by myself, isn't that sad?