With Father's Day approaching, I found this to be a very appropriate and thought provoking question. What did your Dad drive and how did it change your life?
I frequent Jalopnik quite often, as it represents the mindset of automobiles that I share. Not overly serious, with a nice dose of repair fails, car crashes, eBay finds, license plate messages, overly customized rides and the ridiculous. The mutants that comment on the posts are your typical acid tongued, opinionated, but passionate car geeks.
With that said, this question really hit home for me. I am a "car guy". I tend to favor muscle cars, station wagons, and 50's-'75's GM. I enjoy working on cars and am always on the lookout for my next project vehicle. But I can appreciate all cars and the weirdos that love them. The European, Asian, jalopy, collector, lowrider, hot rod, rat rod, trucker, off-roader, vintage, you name it. I love cars. It has led me to a job in the auto industry and helps to keep food on the table. Looking back, I owe most of this to my Dad.
My Dad is an auto mechanic. That pretty much tells the story. I have long considered black dirt and oil under the fingernails a badge of honor. Growing-up I would hang out at my Dad's shop, because of this I am very confortable around or under any car. Hoses, belts, motor oil and wrenches are familiar thing to me. My Dad drove a '66 Ford Falcon Pickup, affectionately know as the Crash Mobile. There wasn't a straight body panel on this thing. It was a delivery truck, part runner, stump puller, firewood hauler, boat tow-er, and battering ram. It was the perfect vehicle for learning a manual transmission at age 14. This is pretty much the only car my Dad owned while I lived at home. He had a '55 Chevy pickup that my younger brother took to restoring, and a lowered Chevy S10 once I was out of college; but none of those had the same effect as the Crash Mobile.
I have never really aspired to owning a new car. Working in the auto industry I get to drive new cars. I rarely drive anything with more than 20K miles on it. It's great since I don't worry about any breakdowns or problems that go with an aging vehicle. But all I've ever know are aging vehicles, that my Dad would fix everyday and give new life to. A real car was one that you kept going. Not some new shiny thing. An older car meant that you were getting full and often unimagined use out of it. My job allows me to lease a new car for my wife & family, but any car I have purchased has been at least 20-years old. Cars are for working on and improving.
I have a soft spot for station wagons. I've owned two and am looking for the next one. I have to think that the multi-functionality of Crash Mobile made the station wagon a perfect vehicle in my eyes. I like being able to carry a surfboard or the family or both. While I probably won't be ramming trash cans or pulling out any tree stumps with my wagons, the impression of Crash Mobile runs deep.
I take my kids in the GTO and get Rite Aid ice cream. Rite Aid carries Thrifty ice cream, which my Dad got when we rode in Crash. We would drive behind the store to the loading dock that featured a huge dip. My Dad would take it Dukes of Hazzard style, bottom out and then launch Crash of the opposite ramp. At age 8 it felt like the truck was flying, but more likely the suspension was just at full travel. There are no loading docks to hoon where I now live. But I am generous with the high speed accelerations on our Rite Aid, ice cream runs. I figure it is the least I can do for the proper development of my children.
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