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I NAMED HER INDEPENDENCE
Does this look familiar to anyone?
Can you guess the make and the year?
Does the dice in the window give it away?
To me this was
INDEPENDENCE.
Call me a late bloomer if you will but the day I became the proud owner of this 1956 Ford something happened to me. You might say I awakened from a long sleep. This was my dream, to have my own car so I didn't have to be at the mercy of anyone else to drive me somewhere or wait for someone to call me and ask me if I wanted to go somewhere with them because they either had a car or were allowed to used their parents, which I wasn't. I'll not go into that story I'm sure they had their reasons but I was out of school, working my first job at Domestic Finance Company
Me at my desk at Domestic Finance
and riding the city bus back and forth to work, and that was getting old. No AC on buses then folks and I lived is South Florida. Plus the cloths one wore in those days were ironed with starch and they wrinkled easy.
The year was 1960, the same year I graduated from High School. God I loved that car and the freedom it gave me. I knew how to drive in the city, after all I went to school in the City and I took drivers ed there, plus I was the only girl the Driver's Ed teacher would allow to pull across 36th street (a very busy street). I wasn't afraid to hit that gas pedel and squeal tires getting across the street. Daddy used to say I started with a lunge and stopped with a plunge. He used to get on me all the time about the way I drove and said that was the reason he was always taking me down to Sears to get new tires because I wore the rubber right off of them lunging and plunging. I wore the rubber off of them going out everynight. I had wheels and meant to use them. Guess I was trying to make up for lost time. All those years I sat home with mom and dad saying "why are you always hanging around here with us why aren't you out with your friends?" Without wheels or wheels you can borrow the only other transportation, like I said before was the city bus and one usually didn't take the city bus alone at night. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of friends but they lived quite a ways away from me, and they didn't have their own car either, they used their parents when they could. So when I got my car it seemed they were as happy about it as I was. I always had plenty of friends to tag along with me and I didn't mind driving over to pick them up so we could make the rounds of all the favorite hang-outs, which back then were drive-in restaurants. You know the kind like Pizza Palace on Palm Springs Mile, or Waxies over by Miami International Airport and there were quite a few others we tried to get to from time to time to check out who was hanging out where.
Heck the first time I saw my husband I was at Pizza Palace and I saw this light blue 55 Ford, fender skirts and all, come driving through Pizza Palace and thought to myself "where has he been all my life?" Of course I told all my friends "get out of the car" and took off out of Pizza Palace right after he left. I had to know where this guy lived. Did I mention I bought my 56 Ford off my brother and it was hot. Well this 55 Ford was pretty hot too. He caught a red light and I pulled up right beside him. I looked over at him and shyly turned my head back around when I saw he look over at me. The light changed and the race was on. I had him in the beginning but I was automatic and he was stick shift. Not to be out did I passed him on Palm Avenue and before I knew it he passed me. We were getting near my road but he turned off first. I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding me, he lives near me. His road was on an angle and I lived a block up, so I raced to the avenue before my road and waited to see if he crossed it, but he didn't. Ah, now I had it pin-pointed. He lived between Palm Avenue and West First Avenue.
Ah, but we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. It's not time to meet him yet, it's not even time for us to race down Palm Avenue. It's not time for me to notice him or ask my brother if he knows the guy that drives the blue 55 Ford. Heck he's not even out of High School yet and I don't make a habit of dating younger guys.
Nope, some other things have to happen first. I've got to meet someone else first and date a few other guys before I meet him. I've got to enjoy my new found freedom before I run into him. True this is the story about my first love but my first love isn't a guy it's my car and I've named her INDEPENDENCE.
AH YES - FREEDOM AT LAST AND THIS IS THE PART YOU USUALLY SAW OF MY CAR.
Now daddy always told me to stay in the right lane (the slow lane) and not the middle lane(the fast lane). He said it was safer in the right lane, but there was nothing slow about me, patience wasn't my middle name and after all having my own car was like being released from prison.
I hadn't had the car very long and one evening I had to work overtime so I was coming home in the dark and I was in the middle lane with heavy traffic on both sides of the road when the car in front of the car in front of me decided to make a left turn. He stopped, the car in front of me stopped and I stopped, and the car behind me stopped and then I heard tires screeching and a loud bang into the car behind me which pushed him into me but thank God the car in front of the car in front of me made his left and the man in front of me zip on before I was jammed into him.
Whiplash #1.
I'd never been in an accident before, I was a nervous wreak. I could hardly stand up my knees were knocking and I think I passed out for a few moments because I heard an officer saying "are you all right miss, are you all right." I raised my head up off the steering wheel and groggly said, "Yes, but my car." I need to call my parents. He walked me over to a car dealership to call my parents and stood there with me. Did I mention he had the bluest eyes I'd ever seen?. Daddy answered the phone and I said "Daddy I've been in an accident and immediately started crying." He said, "are you alright" to which I replied "Yes, but my car." to which he replied I don't give a d--- about your car I just want to know if your alright." I guess the officer told him I was shaking like a leaf and he didn't think I would be able to drive the car home so daddy and mom came down to the accident, daddy access the situation, and decided if he pulled the tail pipes out away from the wheels he would be able to drive my car home. Mom and I followed behind in their car.
They took me to the hospital and the doctor said I had a whiplash and might not be able to get out of the bed the next day but I would be alright. I wasn't alright. In one month I lost 20 I went from 128 pounds to 98 pounds. I cried over everything. I was a mess. I ended up in the hospital in traction and then went for ongoing adustment to my back and neck for many months. Daddy fixed whatever needed to be fixed on the car but the impack messed up the transmission and it had to be overhauled. During that time everything seemed to upset me so I quit my job until I was well enough to look for another one. God was I immature.
Stay tuned for the next episode of the real love of my life. and it's not a car.
ME WHEN I WAS 13
mkolasa101 at 11:38:00 PM EDT Blog about this entry |
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Walking down memory lane is sweet. It sounds like you went from tom boy to a tart chasing the guys when you got wheels. LOL Mine was a 55 Chevy Convertable with glass packed pipes that sounded great. We will be back in Florida sometime in middle of October. A meeting would be fun. Dawn
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Interesting story. I drove my dad's work car 52 chevy. I remember him say.. man my tires are wearing thin! Hmmm me doing like you at a stop light! lol You look like a little tomboy. I was a tomboy too. lol Have a wonderful week and will read your next entry. God Bless, Janie
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What a great story.... I can' wait to hear what comes next...
Linda :) -
MEMORIES---aren't they just great! Are you 2 home now? Tammy
9/25/07 11:34 AM