Mine was blue
(If you like nostalgia you might like some of the other content here at RalphCarlsonBlog. Those were the good old days but there is more to life than nostalgia. Retirement isn’t for wimps. I explore some ideas about making the most of those golden years. Click here for a sample.)
My first new car was bought for me by my father, the week I got out of the Army. It was not the car I wanted. And certainly not the one I deserved. But it did serve me well through graduate school and well into my professional career. There was a sporty version of the Chevy II with a big engine. Mine was a servicable 6 cylinder (it’s amazing that a six cylinder engine used to be considered small) not the big V-8. It did have a stick shift on the floor (my first and last). And it was exactly the color of the one in the photo.
I was a different person after nearly two years in the Army. Not exactly the trained killer the hippies considered me but more independent and with some income of my own from the GI Bill. I never regarded my parents home as mine after the Army and so my Chevy II represented my independence as I began to make my own life. I remember driving back to Connecticut listening to the ‘new’ Bob Dylan singing Lay Lady Lay, feeling like a grownup (and don’t you think that at 27, it was about time).
I survived the Black Panther takedown in New Haven, finished my degree, met and dated my wife using my trusty Chevy II and it brought me to California once school was finished. I finally sold it in 75. Looking back, my father was right. That Chevy II was the right car for me at that time in my life.
thumbs up! cool post 🙂
I didn’t own a car until I get married. Bought it myself the same year that you sold the Chevy II. A second-hand orange Corolla. Cheap and loud. Thanks for bring back my own memory.
I was feeling bad since this one my father bought but them I remembered the Corvair. It was my first and I bought it myself.