First car

Ahhh the joys of a first car.

I was that nerdy high schooler who rode the bus senior year. Sure, I had friends with cars but they all lived west of the high school and I lived east. And I didn't have a car, barely even a permit.

See, my dad refused to teach me to drive and my mom worked full time. Add in the fact that I was stuck in the theater till 5, 6, etc most nights (drama geek, gotta problem with that?) and I barely learned to drive.

i was taught to drive a 64' Chevy. Well my friend tried to teach me stick in her truck, Emmy Lou but I have still yet to master a manual, I no longer burn the clutch but I do still stall out.

Anyway, so I barely learned to drive and then I ended up having to take driving lessons in college - embarrassing. But, let me tell you that power steering is a God send. Try driving windy mountain roads in a 64 Chevy! This student driver Hyundai was a dream! Until I was instructed in my first lesson to drive into an unfamiliar place and onto...the freeway! Sure, I could maneuver a 20 degree hairpin on a 15% incline while holding my pet cat, dodging boulders, and twisting the Chevy steering wheel three times around but a freeway?!?! I promptly had a panic attack and that lesson stopped right then and there.

In college I rode my bike everywhere. This was before hipsters came around, before it was cool to save Earth and ride a bike, man. I was the only one on campus with a bike.

My senior-going-into-more schooling year summer, I took a class to learn Japanese at a community college 20 miles way. So Cal isn't exactly the Mecca for public transportation, but my friend was taking a morning class there. So he would drive from home, take a 20 minute detour to get me, and we went to school together. His class was at 8:00 am, mine at 4:00pm.
Hanging out on campus all day wasn't gonna work.

Some deceased relative's property was going for sale and my grandma wanted to just get rid of it, and my mom suckered me into accompanying her on the transfer, with promise for lunch (omg food, off campus!) so I went. The property was to be turned into an impound lot and already had a few cars there.
One was an Acura, going for $3,000. The soon to be property owners wanted to get it off their hands and not have to send it to auction. I needed a car and while 3 grand was cheap (but above our price range) it had under 100k miles and actually worked! And it wasn't a Lima bean green machine. See I was convinced my first car would be a Lima bean green station wagon from the 70s so to see an early 90s Acura was heaven. Except my mom didn't want to help buy it.

Much convincing and begging ensued and suddenly we pulled up, property transfer docs in hand, transferred the property and bought a car.

I had to clean it out. It was a mess! But boy the things I found...enough history to convince me to order new plates to ensure I wouldn't get shot in some gang drug just. See, the truck contained a duffel bag and letters from prison! Also, some buddy call girl cards, handcuffs, fuzzy dice, and banana flavored condoms. There was no stereo just a gaping "the stereo was totally ripped out and stolen" hole. It came with a 89' Honda key. It had two alarm systems, one that sometimes went off for no apparent reason and would not stop- mechanics couldn't seem to figure out how to stop or remove it, so there was the occasional time I would roll down the freeway with the wee-ooh alarm honking and lights flashing. The a/c was broken and the windshield wipers only worked if you pushed the change-the-time button.

It had dents all over, but it was mine! I got the a/c to work by jamming a cocktail umbrella into the air filter.

This car was a lovely awesome car thought because she was mike and one day, she WAS a beauty I just knew it. Just like Anna Nicole! And she was reliable and got me through Mexico and all around So Cal and never stranded me.

I do certainly enjoy my new, reliable cars but part of me will always pine away for my first car and all her quirks.

She ended up being a rescuer...a friend went through her fiancée death and a car in the shop so she got Anna for a week. Another friend needed a car so there was Anna to fill in. When I finally got rid of her, she went to one of my mom's former students who was hard up and needed a car.