Share your fondest influential auto-related memories from childhood

I'm sure most of us have had some experiences from when we were young, that only helped to reinforce our love of cars. This is one of mine. It certainly isn't the only one...I have many. But it's one of the more fun-filled, and closest to my heart. I'd enjoy hearing those memories which you hold dear, and consider important to your becoming a car nut.

In the early '60s, my late father had a new 2 1/2 car garage built, and parked his gold '57 Plymouth in there...facing out. He had bought a newer car, and the Plymouth sat there for at least 2-3 years. I remember sitting in that car many times, playing with the two-toned steering-wheel and the chrome snub-nosed bullet-shaped dash-knobs. One summer day, he had his best friend Leo come over. Leo was a good mechanic, and the plan was to pump up the tires and get the car running in order to get it out of the garage, and sell it...junk it...I'm not sure. Anyway, I remember that car starting up for the first time in so long...roaring to life through the rusted-away exhaust, and thought it was so cool. But what was even cooler, was when he pulled 'er out. Even though the garage had been built a few years earlier, for some reason, the gravel driveway immediately outside of the garage had still not been built up to the level of the cement floor. That was one thick floor, and was actually 10"-12" above the driveway. Us kids were all watching as Dad revved up the engine, and shifted into Drive. He hit the gas, and peeled out of the garage, squealing the tires, and flying off the front end of that raised floor, and onto the gravel driveway...tires still spinning as he slid the car into the side yard. All us kids laughed loudly with joy at seeing our father...not a "wild-man" by any means, (as far as his children knew) and a responsible husband and father of ten, show such a display of bad-boy abandonment. So cool. The mood was quickly cooled by my mother though, who upon witnessing this raucous behavior, yelled at Dad, "Ron!...You didn't have to do that!" My brothers and I speak of it from time to time even now...over forty years later. Hee-hee.

BTW...That's him in my avatar...my dad in 1956..."barnstorming" atop his '32 Ford 2-door, and his buddy's '32 coupe. That sedan is the car he dated my mom in...a year before I was born.

 

I remember riding in the back seat of my mom's '55 Ford Sunliner convertible on summer evenings with the top down. The smell of honeysuckle, lilac and freshly mowed grass permeated the air as the temperature would dip when we cruised through shaded areas. I remember how the cool breezes would send chills through me and then magically the warmth would return when we would slow down for an intersection or stop sign. The static of the AM radio blaring out Elvis, Johnny Cash or Patsy Cline while we were living the american dream!

Jim

 

Everything seemed brighter,the colors and smells of summer as a young kid for some reason.As a product of the mid 60s i was 5 in 71 and my uncle had a 69 427 vette with tri power.Chrome side pipes with a metallic blue paint.He would come by my house and pick me up and blast down sunrise highway letting me pull the shifter when he signaled. Mom would dress me in shorts durring the summer so almost with out fail i would burn the back of my leggs getting out of that car.
It was at that moment i was ruined.I had to go fast and it had to be loud.One summer morning in 73 my mom told me my uncle was comming over and to stay near the house.So i told my friends i couldent go far and my uncle with the coolest car around was comming by.Well pulling around the corner was a new 73 pinto he had just bought because of the price of gas.
Yea he traded the vette in towards it also.He most certainly dropped a few notches in cool in my eyes that day.

 

My memories are of a 1 hour trip each way down the coast, in the family 1963 ford Ute.
Four seated in the front and 3 or 4 more kids standing in the back,hanging onto a rail, waving to everyone going past. Wind in the hair, bugs in the teeth. No seatbelts, no airbags, or disc brakes or modern gear. We all survived, even though my younger sister insisted on throwing up nearly every 2nd trip. funny about that. Nowadays they'd take the kid's away and throw the parents in Jail.

 

In 62' we lived in the coal mining region of north central Pa. I was eight and playing in the dirt digging roads to move our Tonka trucks around with my best friend I heard a horn blowing. I looked towards the road and there was a new red 62 Corvette and my older cousin was waving for me to come there. She worked for GM and her boyfriend had just bought this car. They took me for a ride with the top down and I sat on the convertible top lid between the seats. It was a good memory. As we lived next door to my three uncles who had a 55 red/white chevy belair with a cont. kit, a 56 Chevy blue/white belair, and a 57 chevy belair gold/red. My dad had a 55 Chevy 2-door wagon and when we moved to Balto. I still remember waving to my best friend out of the hatched rear window, I was very sad to leave, however we are still best friends today and still both car crazy. Man, those are good memories and were good times. I owe my greatest influence to cars to my friend Lin who at 16 had a cool 55 Nomad we took to the drive-in and burger joints, how blessed we are to have lived in those times.

 

When I was 5, I was taken to the last Can-Am race held at Laguna Seca. Don't remember many details, but the sounds and the sight of that blue and yellow Porsche crawling out of the last turn and accelerating up over the hill like it was fired out of a cannon left an impression that will never go away...

 

We lived right near the GM Tech Center in Warren, Mich. My dad and I were right by the main entrance to the Tech Center in about 1961 when my dad said "What's that pulling out of the tech center? He stepped on the gas in our 57 Chevy to catch up to whatever it was. When we pulled up next to it we both were staring and wondering what we were seeing. It was a pointed front end, 2 seat sports car of some kind. 2 years later Chevy came out with the new Corvette Stingray, then we knew we had seen a prototype of the new vette. A few years later, same senario, driving in front of the tech center when something else pulled out of the front gate. Stepped on it to catch up, and stared in awe again. This time it was a dark upper to light blue lower fade paint job on a 2 seat sports car, with a double bubble top sort of thing. We wondered if it was a new vette, and sure enough it was the "Maco Shark", another prototype of the new vette, to be released a couple years later. It was cool living near the Tech Center, lots of the neighbors worked at the Tech Center. A couple guys had cars that were taken in and modified in the styling department.
Red

 

Not really childhood, but.........my dad and I were at Iola in 1994, I was 14, and he bought a '64 Ford Galaxie, I got to drive it all the way to Cornell, about 100 miles, and my dad was in front of me in our truck. My mom was pissed.

 

Meeting Spider-man at the Flint, MI Autorama when I was 7. Heck, if he is into cars, who wouldnt want to be!!

My sister had a boyfriend with 69' Camaro and 69' Firechicken convert. He would take me everywhere. First burnout, first race, first love for a high-rev small block.

 

I'm lucky enough that I get to share my memories with the world as part of my job:

My Mom played her part:
http://www.autotraderclassics.com/articles/templates/generalArticle.xhtml?articleId=63902

Me and Dad working on cars together:
http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/The+Classics+Perspective+_+Passing+It+On-64096.xhtml

Then there was hanging around with my neighbor growing up:
http://www.autotraderclassics.com/articles/templates/generalArticle.xhtml?articleId=59212


Not sure why, but since becoming a Dad myself looking back at those car-related childhood memories makes me appreciate them more.

 

I fondly remember "helping" my Dad as he was building his '38 Chevy sedan. We would spend hours in the garage together. He would give me small pieces to clean up on the wire wheel or a peanut can of bolts to sort....I didn't care...I was "helping".

I thought Dad would keep that car forever and remembered being devastated when I heard he was putting up for sale. I couldn't help but think the timing was too convenient...after all I had just turned 16 the winter before!! The day came, for the car to go to it's new owner, but before it did, Dad tossed me the keys and said: "Let's take a little ride...". I was as nervous as the first time I ever drove! Once we reached the edge of town Dad looked over at me from the passenger seat and said: "Enough driving like an old lady....LET'S GO!!!!"

I had caught the car bug long before, but after that day, my case became incurable!

 

I fondly remember "helping" my Dad as he was building his '38 Chevy sedan. We would spend hours in the garage together. He would give me small pieces to clean up on the wire wheel or a peanut can of bolts to sort....I didn't care...I was "helping".

I thought Dad would keep that car forever and remembered being devastated when I heard he was putting up for sale. I couldn't help but think the timing was too convenient...after all I had just turned 16 the winter before!! The day came, for the car to go to it's new owner, but before it did, Dad tossed me the keys and said: "Let's take a little ride...". I was as nervous as the first time I ever drove! Once we reached the edge of town Dad looked over at me from the passenger seat and said: "Enough driving like an old lady....LET'S GO!!!!"

I had caught the car bug long before, but after that day, my case became incurable!

 

My grandfather was a body man at a Lincoln-Mercury dealer all his adult life. I remember countless times going to the shop (in the 50's and early 60's) and watching him beat those mangled Mercurys' back into shape. I think that's where I got my appreciation for paint fumes and old Fords. Years later I discovered another trait he must have passed on to me. A deep appreciation of "adult beverages" crafted in Milwaukee.

 

i could post all day on this....

being driven to school in a brand new 70' hemi cuda

riding in a 55 chevy wagon 409 4 speed

being driven to school in a 66' vette 427 tri-power 4 speed

 

My dad bought a 66 Chrysler 300 with a 383 4bbl, that my mom got to drive. About every 2 or 3 months, dad would have to take the car out to "get the carbon out of it". from the way mom would drive it. Man for a big tank of a car it was, it would really move. I remember the speedo went to 120 and he could bury it !

Funny thing, I don't remember every wearing a seatbelt back then either !!!

 

1961, my dad had a 1960 Chevy Convertible, red, whitewalls, 348, floorshift that he even let a friend of mine pinstripe. One Friday night he let me use the car for a date, but I took the car to the drags (Old Dominion Speedway, Manassas, VA). I won my class and wiped the shoepolish numbers from the windshield that night. The next morning bright and early I looked out from the second story hall window at the car and the night dew had fallen but the wax in the shoepolish numbers were perfectly visible. I ran out a scrubbed them off again. I don't think he ever knew or found out.

 

I have sooo many early automotive memories, but this one stands out for me: My brother is 10 years older than me, and he hands me the keys to his car and asks me if I want to drive it home (a good 25 miles). The car is a bright orange 440, 4-speed (pistol grip) '69 Roadrunner, jacked up, M50/15's, Cragars, with "Optical illusion" gold-leaf lettered on the quarter panels. So I drove that beast with the barely capped exhaust down back roads and a State Highway.
I was 14 years old.
Yep, that one drive sealed the deal for me.

 

I remember being about 10 and we went for Burgers on what must have been a Friday or Saturday night. we were on "the area of Fremont Blvd known as the strip"... which I found out a few years later is what the cops called it in court when you were fighting a********* ticket. it was an automatic guilty, regardless of what you were doing.

anyways I can remember all the cool cars going by. mostly muscle cars, but i can remember there was a 57 Chevy also. thought that was pretty cool.

couple years later me and my buddies were out on our bikes in the same area. when a HOT ROD went by, then another, then another so we raced down to the local Pizza Parlor where the parking lot was FULL of HOT RODS. must have been 30 cars there... we had never seen so many old cars all at once. it was quite a thrill.

must have been the Nor Cal Early Irons out for a bite

 

I was born in 1951,Dad had his own garage,remember alot of the old cars he worked on but the memory that really grabbed my attention the most was getting to ride in the rumble seat of one of the old cars don"t even know what it was but that was fun.

 

Up until 1985, my dad had a 1969 black on black on black Cadillac Eldorado. Along with a repaint he had a ton of motor work done (cam, pistons, head work) done by a machine shop****ociated with Fredricks Cadillac. I remember being in awe of 512 ci displacement and the price written on the build sheet pinned to the wall above his desk in his office. (I don't think mom ever saw the receipt)

One afternoon he and I were riding home from somewhere when a very nice dark green nova ss was playing in traffic and cut him off twice. I just so happens that we ended up side by side at a subsequent traffic light at the top of Madison Avenue in downtown Seattle.

My dad started power braking the Caddy before the light turned and matted the throttle when the light turned green. Tall radial tire smoke rolled around the sides of that long black hood but the nova got a real good jump and was leading by a half a car length when we stopped at the next light. Same routine, my dad leaned on the Caddy hard this time before the light turned and manually shifted the automatic, I didn't know a front wheel drive Eldorado could get second gear rubber. We ended up 2 for 4 stop light to stop light before we hit traffic.

My dad told me not to tell mom because she wouldn't understand...

Now we are building him a 1933 pickup, I hope he gets in all kinds of trouble with it and raises hell before he is too old to truly enjoy it

 

Lots of great memories at the drive-in theaters in my area growing up. I saw "The Alamo" as a kid and later teen years I "watched" late 60's horror/slasher films that would really get the gals to move up close up and personal. Ah, the smell of Pix mosquito coils brings back memories.
Thanks for bench seats, front and rear

 

My dad and I were sitting in his 1976 chevy truck at a stop light. It was probably around 1991. A red 1966 GTO went screaming by. You could hear the thing coming before we saw it.

"What was that?" I asked.

"That's a GTO Son." he replied.

"I want one"

It was all over from then on.....

 

Yeah...summer rides in a convertible.

Shifting a badassed vette. So cool for a kid.

Almost like being there. Too much fun.

You said it. Goooood times.

Take a kid to a car-race. He'll never forget it!

Wow...privileged to witness history in the making.

Hahahahahaha!...Mothers...

Your sister's boyfriend was very cool with you.

Good stories. Good influences.

Hahahahahaha! Awesome.

Ahhhhh...paint fumes.

120mph ride with Dad. Whoa!

Hahahahahaha! Hilarious!

Wow...cool older brother!

Hot rod influences...love it.

Rumble seats...lots of fun for a kid!

Yahooooooeee! Hahahahahaha!

Great memories, indeed.

"I want one." Hooked. LOL!


Wow, guys...I'm enjoying this even more than I imagined I would. I hope everybody else is as-well. A lot of these stories made me laugh out loud. Some of 'em almost bring a tea...ahem...sniff......awesome stories fellas. Thank you so much for sharing some excellent times with the rest of us. All you others do the same, please. Rick

 

I got one.

 

Earliest auto memory of mine is riding in Dad's '56 Nomad. To this day I think '56's are the best of the tri-5 chevies.

 

The neighbors son alittle older than me had a '69 Camaro SSRS blue with white stripes, his buddy a Sunbeam Tiger , and another buddy had a 66 Econoline van.
Ironically a high school friend bought that van a few years later.Wish I had half the cars from that time ....ah the 70's. Rob.

 

I was gonna ask if you ever ended up getting one Matt, but I didn't want you to have to say, "NO!"...LOL. Ya still got it?

 

Like 'em all, but '56 is special to me too. Good friend of our family had a perfect copper and cream '56 Belair in the early '60s.

No kiddin'! The muscle-cars were a "dime-a-dozen" in the '70s. So many young guys in school had' em. You should've seen it at graduation-time for a couple of years...burnouts down the paved bus-drive. Whoa.

 

I normaly walked to school, but one very cold morning I was late and my Dad was going to drive me. The family car (1941 Ford) would not start. Dad was involved in stock car racing. We went the one car garage where old number 20 was kept. (1938 Ford coupe) The engine only turned over about twice and started. So here we go up the hill to the Normal Park Elementary School in Chattanooga Tn with me sitting in the x brace of the roll bar. I was the hero of morning recess. My 15 minutes of fame!

 

Another memory from 1980 ,I was 17, was a 1967 Mustang a local high performance guy built with a 429 shotgun motor in it . One of the fastest street cars I have seen just plain brute horsepower and it could get to the ground with minimal wheel spin.
Definition of minimal wheel spin: so much smoke through 2 gears that one could not see the rear wheels hence minimal wheel spin! Rob.