My First Car

My first car was a 1969 Dodge Monaco, two door. It had three shades of white paint because the top layers were pealing off. The Monaco also had rusted out wheel wells, bald tires, and engine that knocked, blue smoke out the tailpipe, ripped seats, air conditioner and heater that didn't work, worthless windshield wipers and windows that wouldn't roll up or down correctly. But, I loved that car!

My parents paid $200 (yes, I'm not kidding here) for that piece of crap car (as Adam Sandler may call it - Okay, he was a bit more crude). But, what I loved about that car is that it gave me my first real taste of independence. I was 16-years-old and off my learner's permit and could drive anywhere I pleased.

And where I pleased was to get a job to buy a better car. I went through my high school job placement office who sent me on several interview and got a job hauling heavy appliances like refrigerators, washers and dryers, etc. They paid me less than minimum wage, which the laws at that time said they could.

My first car allowed me to get off of school in the early afternoon, then work 4 hours a day, 5 days a week and come home with a paycheck twice a month. My first car also allowed me to learn how to drive. Yes, like any teenager, I thought I was invincible and my car was indestructible.

I did donuts in the parking lot with it in the winter time with ice and snow on the ground. I ripped off the exhaust system going over a concrete parking pylon I didn't see because of the snow. The bald tires made the donuts especially easy to perform.

At that time, the blue smoke out the tailpipe was no problem because smogging a car was not mandatory and the check engine light wasn't even around yet. With my first car I learned about paying for repairs, maintenance, gasoline and part of the insurance to my parents. First car insurance was not cheap back then and is not cheap now. My cheap first car helped me to learn about safety, partying while driving, the distraction of friends and pretty girls walking by and a number of things too many to mention.

My first used car actually inspired me to get a job and gave me the means to do so. We lived out in the country and my parents were not about to drive me to and from work in town. First car safety was not something I thought much about outside of driver's education classes.

I thought I knew it all and was chomping at the bit to prove it. All I really proved however is that I didn't know as much as I thought I did and my parents and insurance companies were right that teens are generally unsafe drivers.

Myself and my friends, got in minor car accidents, ran into things like telephone poles while backing up, my friends hood flew up while driving smashing his windshield, and in the snow and ice my car slid and bumped other cars, fences, and other inanimate objects.

I was lucky I survived drinking and driving and willful disregard to the rules of the road plus my safety and the safety of others. And, I'm not telling this story to encourage teenagers to go out and do the same. If I had to do it all over again, I would do things very differently. Very safely.

At the time I had this disregard for my safety and that of others in my first car and on the road, I saw one of my high school classmates killed because he was a drunk driver. When I was in my mid-20's I coached a 16-year-old boys baseball team. I had two best friends on the team.

One early morning one of the best friends was driving a car filled with other teens. He was sober and still managed to be distracted and take a corner too fast, smash into a tree and kill his best friend's sister. That is one funeral that I'd never want to repeat.

So, learn from my mistakes. You may think you're invincible in your first car but you're not. You may think the rules don't apply to you, but they do. The roads, highways and byways are not the place to express your individuality but a place to express your conformity.

If you want to express your individuality, write, play music, paint, act goofy in the park or at home, but not while driving. My first car taught me a lot of life lessons back then and it's still teaching me lessons to this very day.

Knowing what I know now about how I behaved in my first car, I recommend that parents set guidelines with their teen drivers. A night time curfew and no drinking or drugging have to be at the top of the list. Also parents can write up an individualized contract with their teen spelling out how the teens can maintain their driving privileges and when they can be taken away.

Teens may not like this. I wouldn't have like it when I was a teen. But, now I know it is not only in the best interest of the teenagers that boundaries be set but for the safety of everyone else on the road as well. A car is a powerful weapon made of glass and steel traveling at high rates of speed. It needs to be handle with respect.