My First Car

I recently had the opportunity to buy back the first car I ever owned. As Ive told people this news, it seems as though I always feel the need to clarify by adding "not one like it, but the exact car"

This fact is not very important to anybody but me, however it does bring to light a fascinating thought about sentimental value. The car itself is not very valuable, in any condition, much less the state that it is in at present. If it had not been "the exact one" that I had in high school, it would not have even been interesting to me.

But it is the exact car.

I was sitting in the drivers seat the other day when i really should have been working on the thing instead, and I cant really explain the flood of images that i was bombarded with.

For some of us, i think the lucky ones, it seems as though your first car really holds a special place in the pit of your stomach. For others I suppose that it more like turns your stomach. In my case, much of my life back then revolved in one way or another around that little car. It represented freedom to me, as well as pride, power, independence, growing up, the list goes on and on.

To have it back is really something that I find fantastic.

There are so many memories wrapped up in that 2200 lbs of sheetmetal that I couldnt possibly begin to share in one entry.

It was the car that I took on my first real date. It was the thing that drove me to work, and that motivated me to have a job. I learned a lot of mechanical skills fixing it. It seems as though that chunk of tin, and my prior experience with it, shaped a lot of who I am today, what I value, my interests, even some of my relationships.

During High School, I doubt that anybody besides myself or my Dad really thought it was a cool car. I'm certain that a lot of my friends actually preferred the more typical high school cars that they owned. It was sort of a grampa car. It had whitewall tires and wire spoke hubcaps. It seemed to be broken all of the time.

To me however, it was a classic car. It was in very nice shape. Being a two-door hardtop, I thought it looked sporty. To me it was about the coolest thing around me at the time.

And so I find myself spending my evenings turning a wrench again. Last night I was working a tscraping old undercoating off of the undercarriage for the third night in a row. Tonight I'll likely be doing something equally glamourous.

Although I dread in one sense the work that I will need to put into the car during this process, I am curious to see what memories come back with the first drive. I cant wait.