The first car I ever had was a hand-me-down from my mom’s boyfriend. It was a 1980 Dodge Challenger in grey. It was repainted black for me. I learned to drive stick on it and ruined the clutch once because I was doing circles in first gear while my boyfriend at the time was on the roof. I did this instead of going to the ballet.
My second car was a hand-me-down from my mom. It was a white 1987 Mazda 626. It was also a stick but had no power steering. I drove it from California to Eastern Canada. I didn’t take care of it and had to cover the engine with a blanket while it was parked so that it would start during the winter.
My third car was a black 1997 Saturn coupe. It was given to me by my stepdad. It was an automatic and was traded-in at the spur of the moment as my ex and I were coming back from an art fair in Florida. Oh, almost forgot to mention—it was traded-in by my ex for a truck that he wanted. It happened so fast, I didn’t realize what occurred.
To replace my car, my ex gave me his, so my fourth car was a black 2001 Jetta. It was a stick. When I moved from Florida to California, I drove it across country with my friend Ang in the passenger seat navigating and my greyhound dog, Cyrano, in the backseat. When Cyrano passed, my friend Karen and I loaded him into the car and I drove him to the vet’s office to be cremated. That was the saddest day of my life.
My fifth car is the one I have now which I got last year. It’s a black (of course) 2011 Mazda 6. It was the first car I ever bought. I spent eight hours at the dealership trying to find the right one. So far, nothing memorable to report.
Heather Rae
February 19, 2013 at 10:48pmI’m on my 4th car! The only memorable thing about my cars is that I sold my 3rd Honda Accord and used the money to move to New York City! Also, the most terrifying moment of my life was spent in my first car. At 17 I was sideswiped on the interstate on the way to school, my little sister was in the car with me. Luckily a friend of mine was right behind me and she drove her car into the center line and put her hazards on so no other car could hit us as my car fucking went on 2 wheels and hit the left guard rail then somehow propelled itself BACKWARDS onto the interstate again and 360’d til it hit the right guardrail and stopped. No one hit us, both of us were totally fine, facing the opposite direction and balancing on a guardrail. I remember when we stopped the only thing I could think about was, “How did my cellphone get from my lap to the backseat of the car?” I’ll never know.