A complete aside from the topic of the thread, but it seems there are many more "old guys" than I expected. We need a Challenge team comprised entirely of people collecting Social Security. Maybe find a Challenge priced car that a member came home from the hospital in, too. Carry on.
My mom had a 68 Malibu 4 door and my dad had a late 60s Bronco.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:A complete aside from the topic of the thread, but it seems there are many more "old guys" than I expected. We need a Challenge team comprised entirely of people collecting Social Security. Maybe find a Challenge priced car that a member came home from the hospital in, too. Carry on.
Or . . . "The Walker Challenge" the appliance that may take you back to a hospital.
Heavy snow made the trip to the hospital difficult, so I was almost born in dad's Nova. Like this:
Mom's shiny new Ford "Econosedan" was the other family hauler:
I came home in my dad's '62 P210 Duett. (The 122 was my mom's, so I was shuttled around in it until its life was cut short [no injuries to humans]).
The Duett was sold/restored in the mid-80s and may still exist (in Connecticut??).
lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) said:I'll have to find the pictures, but I was driven home from the hospital in a 1964 Pontiac GTO. 389, tri-power, 4-speed, no power steering, red with black vinyl top. Dad's race car at that time was an Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite which competed in one of the small-bore production classes(HP?).
Nice to meet another GTO baby.
A few visits ago, my dad was showing us the sales brochure for the GTO.
I noticed some math in my dad’s handwriting on the brochure itself but didn’t take a close look.
Payments? I asked.
Gear ratios, he replied.
When I was born, my folks had this Renault 4CV:
They bought it new in '61 for $995. But when I was born in '63, there was some reason that I was brought home in my uncle's new Rolls Royce. My dad says that seems to have influenced my taste in cars... Identical to this one:
My dad has this Capri 5.0 when I was born, and that's my moms Plymouth Arrow coupe (I think). He had to trade the Capri for an Ford Econobox GT because he was commuting, and it turned out to be a lemon. My mom got an 87 Cougar after that, so a 5.0 stayed in the family.
Dad drove a '46 Ford (I'm not certain if it had a flat head V8 or the inline six. Sorry). I barely remember the car. Mom called it "Oil Can Harriet". It looked like this:
The family car was a two-tone '57 Chevy wagon, which Mom called "Mustard and Mayonnaise". It had a single 4-barrel on a 283 with a manual transmission, and looked something like this:
The last time I saw the '57, a relative had mounted the body on a 4x4 chassis and was driving it around Roswell, NM in the mid-1970's.
I was born in 1970 in the seaside town of Cadiz, on Spain's west coast. My father was the Chief engineer aboard the submarine tender, USS Holland and he and my mother lived "on the economy" instead of on base. For this reason they had their own car for getting around.
This car, as he discovered many decades later, was truly special. An homogulation special 1968 Opel Kadett Rallye in "rally orange" with all the options. We brought it back to the states with us a few years later and it was eventually sold in 1979 when my sister was born.
It looked much like this:
A '61 Plymouth Valiant, 4-door, 3-spd manual. One of the only cars my father bought new. The car lasted until I was 4, when it was replaced with the first of a series of '66 Darts.
IIRC, I came home bundled in the back of a "66 Corvette coupe. Ours was a 327/350 L79 with factory air conditioning. It's been too many years since I pawed through the photo albums and can't be certain, but I think it was silver like the example below. No side pipes, though.
Back then, these were just used cars. Why not?
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Like... in the trunk?
In November of '56 was brought home in a '52 Desoto like this but a little better cosmetics and NOT a Firedome but a flathead six:
The Desoto was my mom's car until they bought a new '65 Olds wagon (a sidebar: I drove that wagon on the first date with my now wife nearly 45 years ago).
My dad drove a gray base version of this Jalopy until he bought a Morris Minor in about 1962:
The Morris Minor eventually became mine when I turned 16 in '72:
The Minor was the first of about 60 cars over the past 51 years of my life. I should make a list sometime before I can't remember all of them.
fatallightning said:In reply to DarkMonohue :
Like... in the trunk?
I had about the same though FL...
Well looking at what you guys came home in I feel like I'm still a baby! My parents brought me home in a 90s Civic sedan, which they owned until I was in elementary school and it blew a head gasket. Maybe thats why I'm into Japanese goodness?
fatallightning said:In reply to DarkMonohue :
Like... in the trunk?
"Trunk" isn't really the right word. There is no separate cargo compartment or trunk lid; the luggage area is open to the cabin. There is a little flat well directly behind the seats, with a lip at the front to keep all your junk and/or newborns from flying around. That's where they parked me.
Haven't managed to track down any good photos of cars from childhood, but here's a fun photo of me and Chris in the backseat of what I believe is our mom's 1996-ish Nissan Quest, arguably the most '90s minivan of all the '90s minivans.
(above photo is not our mom's actual van, it's just a close approximation I found)
Born in 1967. Dad drove a 65 Buick GS convertible and mom drove a 65 Olds 442. Dad flew a Globe Swift at the time. Baby brother was born in 1969. Dad drove a 68 Corvette convertible and mom drove a 68 firebird. Dad flew a Beechcraft model 17 stagger wing , as he had a family to transport.
DarkMonohue said:fatallightning said:In reply to DarkMonohue :
Like... in the trunk?
"Trunk" isn't really the right word. There is no separate cargo compartment or trunk lid; the luggage area is open to the cabin. There is a little flat well directly behind the seats, with a lip at the front to keep all your junk and/or newborns from flying around. That's where they parked me.
My dad's 68 had a similar spot. I rode there and mom held baby brother
1967 Chevelle wagon, brown on brown with a Corvette 327 and Muncie that Dad swapped in, sitting on turbine mags. This was the Mom-mobile for my first two years or so. Dad used it to tow the boat at the time (17' Boston Whaler) and kept burning up clutches getting up the launch ramp, so he put bigger-badder-gnarlier clutches in it with the eventual result of breaking the front bench seat back from pedal effort, which was then propped up with a 2x4. He also got a speeding ticket for doing 90 while pulling that boat up a major grade. I have fond memories of cruising into parking lots with that 327 loping heavily, looking out the windows at the herds of despicable new K-car minivans and Volvos, and could not understand why they were "silent". In a concession to practicality, it was sadly replaced with a loathsome 1984 Caprice wagon with a miserable 305 that would overheat just cruising down the highway on a cool day. I don't think I've felt more ill in my life than while strapped into the backwards-facing 3rd-row seat, sucking on fumes from 80s catalytic technology infiltrating thru the quarter-sized holes in the weatherstrip, all while becoming miserably motion-sick from the scenery going backwards at 55 MPH. I swear that vehicle was designed by Satan himself.
When I was born, my dad had a the car that's pretty much the reason for my lifelong car obsession which was his 1970 Oldsmobile 442 W-30. Very rare options combo, pretty much just all the highest performance options checked with zero luxury options, super bad ass rig. His daily was a 73 Pontiac Grand Prix with a 400 auto, mom drove a 1983 Dodge Ram van.
Tomwas1 said:In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
That is one Helluva custom whatever parked behind your chevy... Did you live in California..?
My dad built that car with some help from a couple friends, in and around Hyattsville MD circa 1953. My brother (holding pic of me, surrounded by our sisters, probably March 1967) came home from the hospital in "The Buffalo," as that car was known in our family. It was a 51 Kaiser Manhattan IIRC, that had been in a rollover. The roof and quarters were damaged, so they built a Carson-style top so they wouldn't have to metal-finish the roof. They massaged the quarters and added Lincoln (maybe?) taillights. Or maybe the Continental Kit and bumper were Continental, and the taillights were later Kaiser? He and my Mom started making babies in 1955 and didn't quit until late 1966, and in those years his beloved Buffalo (named for the animal on the Kaiser emblem) became just another beater before being sent to the junkman around 1968 according to family lore.
Born 62, mom was the car person in the family. Parents had early 60s Corvair, very yellow. Later in life the Corvair would throw belts a lot. Next she purchased a 72 Celica ST, which later became my first car. 
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