My First New Car

In my last post about the assassination of President Kennedy, I mentioned that my dad and I were in Los Angeles looking for an automobile when we learned the tragic news.  It turned out, that because it didn’t seem appropriate nor practical to do business on that bleak Friday afternoon, we came back a few days later to purchase what became, (tah dah,) my first brand new car.

Now, for a New York kid that was only twenty-two, I had already bought and owned four cars, each with money I had saved from jobs since Junior High.  One of them was a 1932 Plymouth that didn’t run, and was pretty much ruined when I tried to turn it into a rat rod.  The next two were Mercurys, a “hot” 1950 coupe powered by a 352 cubic inch Packard engine, and a 1953 hardtop that ended up blowing a rear end on a trip back from the Adirondack Mountains.  My last car before being inducted, was a blue and white 1956 Chevy that was, as we called it then, “cherry.”  Rather than put it in storage during my three year enlistment, however, I reluctantly sold it to a close friend.

Obviously, every car I had ever owned was bought “used.” So our trip to Felix Chevrolet on November 22, 1963, was indeed unique.  My dad had impressed upon me, that in California a CAR (not a dog) was man’s best friend, and without one that was reliable I might find myself stranded on a busy freeway, unable to get to classes.  So between my Army savings, and an unsolicited but generous contribution from him, the decision was made to buy “new.”  And buy we did.  I ended up driving off the lot in an amazing, fire engine red, 1964 Chevy Chevelle Malibu.

I was SO proud of my new “ride!”  I probably washed that car twice a day for the first two months I owned it.  And when my Jr. College Freehand Drawing teacher gave us a homework assignment to draw something at our residence, you can guess what I chose as my subject… MY BRAND NEW CAR !  So, for those of you who weren’t around in 1964, or couldn’t pick a 1964 Chevelle out of a lineup, I’ve included those pencil drawings at the top of this post… artistic renderings of my first true automotive romance.

Epilogue:  As it turned out, I ended up keeping this car for almost ten years.  I would have kept it longer were it not for the fact that it was totaled by a large district delivery truck in my school parking lot.  Seems the idiot driver parked on an incline, and forgot to secure the emergency brake, allowing the massive vehicle to roll fifty feet into my “baby,” like a bull charging a bright red, shiny cape.  It was an assassination, clear and simple… just like the one on the day we first met!