Dodge ’em

I’ve taken stock of the automobiles I’ve owned. What do they say about me?

I learned to drive in a hayfield, in the cab of a dark green 1953 International Harvester flatbed truck. Dad set the throttle at 2 mph  and I steered between bales as workmen loaded the twine-tied harvest. 

I graduated to an automobile, of course. Completing university studies and newly employed by an appliance and electronics trade magazine, I first motored to work in an aqua green 1959 Studebaker Lark, the first year of the model and the most underpowered car you could imagine. Dad had stepped up to a powder blue Oldsmobile 98.

I soon purchased my own car, a 1967 Plymouth Valiant (green). Or was it a 1968 Dodge Dart (blue)? I can’t remember which was first. I had one after the other.

As I look at my past fleet, I see a faithfulness to brands dominant when I was born. Either Chrysler or General Motors products. No Rambler or DeSoto or Tesla. 

I had a Chevrolet Citation (horrors, it’s included in Craig Cheetham’s “The World’s Worst Cars,” a book published in 2005). I repainted mine in John Deere green, to give it a little pizazz.

I had an Oldsmobile Ciera (gold), Chevy Malibu (maroon), Pontiac Trans Am (fire engine red) and, my favorite, a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser (blue) with a sunroof. I hated to part with the Cruiser — it was a 2.4-liter turbo model that really moved when you stepped on the throttle.

All my cars were broken in by others, which says more about being a two-car family than actual choice of car. In fact,  in looking for recent replacement cars, my wife and I both rated color high: no gray or silver, please, no white. She now has a turquoise aqua blue Honda Fit. I have a black Dodge Avenger.

I can remember the colors of these cars, but not a whole lot else. In fact, I recall a whole lot more about the times I steered a red Farmall M while mowing hay. (Sometimes it was a Johnny Popper, you know the color.)

They no longer make Studebakers, Oldsmobiles, Plymouths, Citations or Cruisers. Darts were gone for a while but are now manufactured again. Chrysler put out an Avenger in the 1960s and dropped it. Dodge resurrected the emblem in the 2000s but has now stopped.

You know what that means when it comes to finding replacement parts. 

I quit working on my cars the year I was replacing a muffler and got a chip of rust in my eye and had to have it gently scalpeled  out at the ER.

I like variety. My late Uncle Wendell always had a Chevrolet with a radio, so he could listen to Red Sox baseball without disturbance. 

I grew up on a private estate whose owner bought everything International (including its rugged Farmall tractors). 

Their faith was rewarded. Though, vehicles decades ago didn’t have computers that failed (my Cruiser’s) or weak torsion-bar suspension (the Valiant’s). 

Of course, they didn’t have catalytic converters or other fuel-saving measures, cruise-control, airbags, heated seats or air conditioning, either.

Anyway, I’ve been reflecting. More fun than car shopping.

As a teen, the writer daydreamed of driving a Triumph TR3, a 1962 Corvette or a Jaguar XKE. Hasn’t happened yet.