Vintage Thingie Thursday: A Vintage Memory With My First Car

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
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This week, I'd like to share a vintage memory!! Oh, how I wish back in the days when I was in High School, that we had taken photos like today's teenagers do....but we did not, so this will have to do for today!!

My first car, or should I say, the car I had to drive was a lime green Vega. It looked like the one I found a picture online to show. Only, mine was not this shiny or bright. It did not have air conditioning, and only had a am/fm radio.....no tape deck ( notice I said "tape deck"). Nothing fancy at all...but it was drivable and I drove it, Oh, did I drive it. One thing about this car was that it used oil, and when my dad let me have it to drive, he stressed how I'd have to keep an eye on that. I had to learn how to check the gauge and dipstick to see if I needed to add more oil when it was low and I had to know what type of oil to buy (Pennzoil 30W), and how to put it in. But hey, it ran, so I was all good.

I got to thinking about this car the other day because I have several friends who's teenagers are getting their drivers license and driving now without their parents. And naturally, they are worse than a cat on a hot tin roof .....worried. They talk about all the rules, no driving here or there. I sorta laughed at that when I heard about it and remembered how those words sounded to us at that age. I remember we did just about whatever it was we wanted to do, no matter what my mom said. Sorry mom, true. The key was just not to get caught.

One friday night during football season, the game that week was out of town. I had only been driving on my own a couple of months, so I was limited to where I could go.  And if I remember correctly, I had a small crush on one of the football players and could not miss the game. It was not that far, maybe 30 minutes away but my mom would not let me drive there and none of my friends were driving at that time. My best friend and I wanted to go to that game, and guess what?? We did just that. We left town, and drove to the game. We did not even stay that long, but it was the thrill I guess of doing what we wanted to do and get away with it. Yes, I was that kind of child.

Anyway, after we paid to get into the game and left to come home, the "Oil" light came on and I knew if the oil light came on, then it as low.....so I pulled into a gas station to have it checked. Now, at sixteen, I had no idea how far I could drive with the oil light on, and here I was over 30 minutes away from my hometown with a total of .35 cents in my purse. Seriously. No cell phones to call home, not that I would have anyway, my mom would have killed me had she known. Oh the mind of a teenager, no money other than some change and never once thinking a thing would happen.

The service station man (which certainly is a vintage memory these days) told me how low the oil was, I asked him how much oil I could get for .35 cents. I am sure I told him I was not close to home, and batted my eyes while doing so, because he put the oil in and took my .35 cents and the light went off and so did we.

With a great sigh of relief, we went straight home....at least to out hometown. Was I worried? Yes, only that my mom would find out. It was thrilling to have got away with that and nothing happening. You know how silly moms are anyway, they overreact and worry for nothing.

I have to laugh to myself at so many of my friends who fuss and fret over their teenagers in their cars. Somehow, I don't remember doing that too much when mine started to drive, but then again, my daughter as always pretty cautious about things. Seriously, I am sure they would not do half the stuff that we did at that age......and we are still here to tell about it.

That car would have lots of stories to tell if it was still around and could talk. Believe it or not I eventually throwed a rod in this car due to driving it low on oil. That was the end of that little car and all its wild rides I took it on. It was a sad day for sure.

So.....if any of my friends who have teenagers driving about now, I'd like to say just relax. Give them a little room to breath, that way, you will always know what they are doing and where they are. Think about how innocent it was to us all the shenanigans we got ourselves into back then. We made it just fine, and they will too!!! Oh, and mom.....I guess it took me 33 years to tell this on myself......I am thinking it was the worse I ever pulled behind your back, but hey, I'm alive!! :)

Happy Vintage Thursday Everyone. Have a great weekend!