My First Car

 It was Spring or Summer of 1975. I was 18 years old. I remember my first car was a 1966 Chevy Impala station wagon. Really. It's what I wanted. It was a kind of a  tan color like sand, with a white roof. I paid $600 for it plus I paid a local artist $200 to air-brush paint a desert scene on the side windows. It was 2 speed automatic on the tree and I cut off the shifter handle and replaced it with a Budweiser tap handle. With the mag wheels I put on it, it looked pretty decent. The factory radio was AM only so I bought an AM-FM radio with an 8 track player and mounted it inside the glove box so it wasn't visible to thieves. That didn't help though. While I was at the Cattle Congress (it's like a carnival) someone broke the wing vent, unlocked the door, pried the glove box door open and  ripped it out. It was a good car though. It took me and my friend Marty to LA and San Diego and back to Cedar Falls. Though the rear main seal failed on the way out there so we spent most our time there replacing it. A couple years later I traded it for my brother's 2-door olds cutlass. Rusty with torn up seats but still a good runner.