Maybe we think about cars as a conveyance from point to point.  Maybe we think about them as a way to get groceries back home or a ride to a restaurant or work.  But to people who really appreciate their history with their beloved car the places our cars take us are not necessarily “places”.

My car has been with me for 30 years and every time I look in the side view mirror and see the body line in the mirror I think about the first day I drove that car right after I bought it as an 18 year old soldier.  At that time the car takes me back to the day I bought the car and it is a great experience every time it happens.

After I got off active duty in 1988 I drove the car for the first time on the streets of my home town.  I drove from Ft. Benning, Georgia to Carbondale, Pennsylvania with my brother Jim.  I was so car proud that when I drove on those home town streets the first time (and almost every other time over the past 30 years) I felt like there was no finer homecoming than this.

The first time I brought the car to my grandfather’s house to show him the car was also memorable.  He got me interested in cars when I was little and took to me to my first car show.  He was a real car guy and I could not wait to show him the car.  I can hardly look at my car without my thoughts going back to my grandfather and his love of his cars.

So where do cars take us?  It depends on the car and how much you appreciate it.

We probably all love spring for many reasons but I think car people like spring because we get to reawaken our cars which for all of us but those lucky enough to live where “winter” is warm and does not involve snow, cold, or salted roads, has been a long several months.

We now look forward to bringing the car out of storage, cleaning it up, doing our required maintenance, and getting back on the road. For me, driving to cruise nights and a few shows is a way to simply enjoy life.

When I bought the car there was a long cut in the top just above the driver’s door.  The previous owner advised me that someone broke into the car by cutting the top then reaching in and unlocking the door.  So of course that was pretty much the 1st thing I had to replace since I didn’t have a garage to keep the car in.  I also learned a lesson which I still generally follow today; don’t leave anything worth stealing and don’t bother locking the doors.

When I first bought the car this is pretty much what it looked like.  I was stationed at Ft. Benning, GA and I saw the car for sale in the classified ads of the Atlanta Journal.  I made arrangements to meet the seller at the Peachtree mall in Atlanta.  He was asking $3,000.00, but I only had $1,000.00.

My thousand dollars was the sum total of an inheritance from my great Aunt Lenore.  She left me that  money and I kept it for something special…this car as it turns out.  The owner was a pretty young man too, Randy Caldwell who was selling this car because he was moving from GA to Indiana.  He wasn’t thrilled with my offer of 1K, but after looking down at the ground for what seemed to me to be an hour, he asked to see the money.  I paid him and drive this awesome car for the first time from Atlanta back to Ft. Benning.

I can remember it clearly to this day.  I was thrilled.  It was January and a bit cold but I put the top down anyway….how could I not.  That was my first real shot of freedom in a car that I can recall.  I also recall looking in the side view mirror and seeing that beautiful curve that begins just behind the door and tails out over the quarter panel.  What a great 1st day with the finest car I have ever owned.

I bought this car in 1987. I was 20 years old and I knew this car was perfect for me. That was 29 years ago and I still have this car because it is really more than just a car. Car people know what I am referring to and non-car people may not. Even though a car is just an object, just a machine, when you combine the way it makes you feel, the memories you have in it, the nostalgia of a past era, and so many other things a car can become a part of your life.