My First Car

Today I was reminded of my first car. It was an ocean blue 1977 Ford Maverick, which was an automatic with a six cylinder engine and could go up to 100 mph. I do remember testing that once (maybe twice). I had bought it for $450 from a little old lady who had barely drove it resulting in very low miles.

The thing that made me think of it was talking about the bright headlights switch on cars. My Maverick had the switch on the floor that you pushed on and off with your left foot. I don’t recall when they switched over to the levers on the steering column, but it is definitely easier.

My Maverick also had the bench seat, not seen in cars anymore that I know of, except the back seat. My taller passengers had to deal with knees rubbing the dash due to me being vertically challenged.

The only thing power on the car was the power steering. The air conditioning was 2/60, two windows down going 60 mph. The radio was standard am/fm with the push buttons that shot the little red line back and forth in the display, I eventually replaced it with one that had a cassette player.

When I was sixteen this was a great car and carried me around for two years. It had around 66000 miles on it when I bought it, about 115000 when I finally let it go to junk yard heaven.

The car was ten years old when I purchased it, (I see you doing the math), and was very rusted out when I quit driving it. I remember a blinker light that hung by the wire because the quarter panel had rusted out in that spot.

My Maverick was a great first car and it is hard to remember all the events it took me to or all the good times it provided. I feel lucky to have had such a good first car, even if it wasn't the coolest.