Daymaker - a person who performs acts of kindness with the intention of making the world a better place.
~ David Wagner
, author of Life as a Daymaker; how to change the world by making someone's day ~

DayMaker - any thought, word, or deed that spreads happiness, compassion, or fruitful ideas.
~ Annis Cassells ~

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A Fetching of Firsts, Part 3: First Car


First Car

No red-bow-wrapped, shiny new automobile sat in my driveway on my sixteenth birthday in July of 1959. Heck, we didn’t even have a driveway at our eastside Detroit duplex.

Two years later, when my husband and I lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan, right after our wedding, we got around by taking public transportation and taxis. We did lots of walking, too.  The first car arrived on the scene, nearly a year afterward. By the summer of 1962, we’d saved enough money for the down payment. It was a brand new, robin’s-egg blue Studebaker Lark. Because of the car’s distinct design, friends and family would recognize our blue baby from a block away.

[Google images]
Like most kids, I took driver’s education classes in high school. My dad let me practice driving his stick-shift Dodge, taking me out to Belle Isle to stutter along its two-lane roadways as I learned to change gears. But, I didn’t get my driver’s license until that Studey came along. Since I only had a driver’s permit, my husband rode passenger -- and became the instructor -- anytime I sat behind the wheel. It was a nerve-wracking experience to say the least. Probably for both of us.


For interminable hours, I practiced driving in town and on county roads, parallel parked hundreds of times, and studied the State of Michigan’s rules of the road.  I scheduled my driver’s test appointment a few weeks after I’d received my permit. Taking the written test was no problem. 

I was a little nervous when I got into the Studey with the DMV official. But the butterflies flew out the window once I put my hands on the wheel, started the ignition, checked my rear-view mirror, looked over my left shoulder, and eased away from the curb. The testing official directed me along our route, telling me where to turn. After he’d had me parallel park, he said, “My, Mrs. C., you certainly are calm.”

A quiet chuckle bubbled up before I said, “Compared to driving with my husband, this is a breeze.”

Having the Studey gave us a summer full of pleasure and a freedom that we’d not known having been tied to bus schedules. One Sunday morning as we headed west toward Ann Arbor, an announcement on the radio advertised it was the last day of the Michigan State Fair. “Let’s go!” we both said at once. We made a U-turn and headed east, a new adventure on the horizon.

When winter came, I learned to handle the Studey and myself in bad weather. At the first snow, my husband put his instructor hat on once again to have me practice keeping control of the car in a skid. It was scary, but I did it. Then felt capable and confident no matter the weather. 

Inside the shelter of the Studey in 1963, I learned JFK had been shot. I’d been walking to an afternoon class when the car drew up on my left and I caught a glimpse of blueness out of the corner of my eye. My husband stretched across the seat and rolled the passenger window part-way down. “Get in.” I did, noticing that he looked worried; something was wrong. “The President has been shot!” he said as he drove off in the direction of the campus parking lot near the Student Union. I had questions, but at that point we knew no answers. So, he parked and we abandoned the Studey to watch TV and be in the company of other students when those answers came.

I can only imagine how many trips the Studey made between Ypsilanti and Detroit, sometimes taking Michigan Avenue all the way, other times on I-94. Today, when I remember that car, I recall it with a smile and a nod to the girl I was back in the early 60s when gasoline was less than 25 cents a gallon and fueling up a funny-looking blue car was a first step to adventure.

~ xoA ~

Remember your first car?

21 comments:

  1. Mine was a green Studebaker!! Boy, did I love that car. It had a heater and a radio that worked. Now in a Pennsylvania winter that was very important. Of course the radio was right up there in importance so I could listen to Elvis on the way to work at the donut shop after school. The big drawback however was the brakes were not that good!

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    1. I loved our car, too. It was fun driving a different-looking vehicle. Thanks for telling about your Studey. xoA

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  2. I really enjoyed reading this memorable piece of your history. I think that car is way cool looking.

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    1. Iola, we thought it was quite a car. Thanks. xoA

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  3. I really loved the story. My husband actually taught me how to drive. I prepared him for the kids. Now he knows how to teach our daughter who will be looking for a car in 3 years. My first car was a red 1990 Toyota Celica.

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    1. Thanks, Donnee. It takes a lot of patience to make the husband-wife teaching/learning situation work. Those red Toyotas were cool, too. xoA

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  4. I didn't teach my wife to drive, but I taught her how to drive a stick. She'd always wanted a Mustang and I agreed to get a new '96 on the condition we got a five speed. She did fine. But that car wasn't our first car, and it didn't play as big a part of our lives as your Studey did in yours, and it didn't anchor our place in any historical events, either. I'm a very visual person, so I'm imagining all of the scenes as you describe them. It's a beautiful picture.

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    1. Jerry, sounds like your wife was highly motivated to learn to drive a stick shift. No easy feat. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Thank you. xoA

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  5. Drivers Ed in school check. Bought my first car for $800.00 an old VW. My younger brother had to test drive it because though I had my license I didn't know how to shift. He taught me. I moved out of the house shortly there after and it was awhile later I got married. Loved that car! Had an aunt that had a Studebaker such unusual cars, but then she was an usual woman so it was fitting...she lived in a log cabin.

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    1. I loved those old VWs, too. Had a red convertible with those big 70s daisies on it and also a van. xoA

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  6. Mine was an old yellow Chevy Nova with the stick on the steering console. It was a hand me down from my father. Sadly it didn't survive some shoddy repairs it had while I was in college.

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    1. The one I learned on had the stick on the console, too. My first on-the-floor stick was in the VWs I owned. xoA

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  7. My parents had a '68 Plymouth Satellite, stick shift on the column. My dad took me to the cemetery to practice. I also took driver's ed/training in high school and got my license just before I turned 18.
    I bought my first car, a '66 Mustang, stick shift on the floor, after I graduated.

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    1. Those '66 Mustangs were great. I got one in the mid 80s and thought I was so cool. xoA

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  8. I got my license eight days after my sixteenth birthday--to the guffaws of all my friends who'd gotten theirs on their exact birthdays. I didn't get my first car until I graduated college, with $300 of graduation money and from my wages washing dishes in the college cafeteria. It was a bronze (aka dirt-brown) '65 Chevy Malibu, which was nearly twelve years old at that point. My first new car was an Audi that I bought when I was thirty. My wife said I had to buy a new car or I wouldn't be allowed to drive our newborn around.

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    1. Great story! Love the color of the Malibu. Thanks for sharing with us. xoA

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  9. I love reading your blog posts and have given you the Liebster Award. Please stop by and pick it up when you have a chance.

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    1. Well, thank you, Dawn Marie. I will check back with you after this weekend when I have time to concentrate! It's Relay for Life weekend and my family is here. I've enjoyed your blog, too. See you later. xoA

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  10. That's definitely an interesting-looking car, Annis, and a really great story to go along with it. Taking a new car out on the road can be tricky, whether as a first time driver or when you're adjusting to a new car. That said, whatever happened to this car? Thanks for sharing!

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  11. Looking at that car really flooded my mind with some incredible memories. When me and my brother were little, my dad would put a full mattress in the back seats so we could lie on out stomachs at the drive-in and watch the scary movies. That car was built like a tank, I don't ever recall wearing seat-belts once back then.

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    1. Thanks for reading and for sharing your memories. It was a dandy car! xoA

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