After seeing yesterday’s blue AMC hearse, I got to thinking about that other important ride we have all taken.
My first ride was home from the hospital in a 1969 Ford Fairlane. Powered by a 302, it was the first car my father had ever purchased with an automatic transmission. He says the automatic was for my mother, however it was partly due to his having broken a hip.
Mrs. Jason isn’t sure what she came home in; she’s the youngest and, well, her parents were distracted with her two older brothers. My father-in-law thinks she came home in a ’57 Plymouth he had found with a mere 8,000 miles in 1970.
So in what car did you take your first ride? Bonus points are in order if you later drove that car.
10-9-65, I came home in a silver 1961 Chevy Impala Sport Sedan.
Dad had it until 1968 when it was stolen for a joyride and wrecked. It was replaced with an aquamarine 1965 BelAir.
Oh, that’s easy. Mom’s 1977 Volvo 245DL wagon, blue with blue vinyl interior.
Funny story. If you have ever been in a 240, you know they have a coin tray right below the center vents (pic below from a late-model 240 I need to write up). As a little kid, I used to put coins in the tray into said air vents. Mom didn’t know anything was amiss until she turned on the A/C and heard the coins rattling around inside 🙂 I was probably about three. Dad was just thrilled to have to take it to the dealer to get the stupid coins out!
No idea why I did that. Maybe I thought a toy or can of pop was going to come out?
I remember that when I was around the same age one of my friends’ older brother telling us that if we put a 20 cent coin (then-current rate for a public phone call) in the slot of the concrete communications pit cover next to the sidewalk we could make a phone call, but I don’t think we believed him after he had a bit of trouble explaining how we could talk and listen to the person at the other end without a handset!
1971 Impala wagon. Avocado green, no woodgrain – the old man was too cheap. In-utero, I apparently was in my first accident in this car as well. Family vacation to the beach, very pregnant mom, 3 older siblings, no seatbelts, and a girl who nearly got herself killed by pulling out in front of us. The other kids ended up front Clark Griswold style I’m told and the old man broke his collar bone – probably by a flying kid while trying to restrain his pregnant wife.
The good old days, LOL.
Umm…. 1972 2.0 OHC Ford Pinto. For more details, see today’s Curbside Classic. ;->
I came home from hospital in a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 4 door hardtop with the Thunderbird 312 V8 in October of 1962. During the Missiles of October crisis, no less.
My dad loved that car, talked about it until the day he died in 1978. He would have been 100 years old, last Friday, November 15.
When I first saw the post and the pix, I thought it was MY first ride (car), which coincidentally was a 1969 Ford Torino GT hardtop (not fastback). How cool would that have been…
I cam home from the hosptial in a brand-new 1960 Corvair. And no, I never got to drive it. My parents sold it in the summer of 1964.
I came home in a Corvair too. 1964 Monza Spyder coupe, which was sold a couple years later, too, so I never got to drive it. They told me it used to blow away Corvettes going over Snoqualmie Pass here in WA.
I probably came home in my dad’s 1967 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible, metallic dark green, 383 Commando, 727. That car was totalled in an accident when I was 3, but I have driven the 1966 Chrysler that replaced it.
Ha! Pretty sure I was brought home in a ’69 Fury convertible…dark green…383 Commando/727. I’m seeing a pattern here.
Hmmm…that could be, in that my ride back home to Copper Canyon from the hospital in Elko, Nevada was undoubtedly the three-year-old 1936 Chrysler Airstream coupe that my father had at the time. It was sold before I was three, though – replaced by a 1935 Ford 4-door which was probably thought to be better for a family with kids.
Brought home in a 1954 Vauxhall Velox it had been repainted and the rust removed before my memory of it from Stoneleigh grey to an Emerald metallic and was sold in 64 but it was a cool car as a kid I was allowed to turn the key on or have a turn pulling the starter button.
For me it would have been a 1973-75 Ford Falcon. I’m not sure if my mother had her car before I was born or not, in any case I doubt she was driving for my first ride – back then I expect the ‘baby capsule’ was her arms!
’53 Monarch hardtop. Long gone by the time I started driving, but I do remember riding in it. Probably in my mother’s lap, no seat belt, while she puffed on a Number 7. Just like most other kids back then…
In my case, a ’57 Ponty Pathfinder deluxe, with 261 six and three on the tree in September 1962. I recall how there were no child seats and everyone smoking until well into the sixties. My first accident was in 1964 in mom’s ’62 Monza. I was in the back seat, leaning against the passenger seat, when suddeningly I took flight and ended up in the passenger footwell. I think that they used to insure kids in those days, just in case…..
Only ever seen one of these in the late 70s a rather battered black daily driver I used to see quite a lot in Harrow.
Probably a 61 or 62 VW Bug, judging by the pics I’ve seen.
Possibly this one: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1958-volkswagen-type-i-deluxe-my-first-ride-in-a-beetle/
8/11/1962. A white 1961 Ford Falcon. From what I’m told it was a 6 with a 3-on-the-tree. My grandparents gave the car to my parents as a wedding present.
This was the first of several Falcons my father owned up until about 1970.
Chartreuse Datsun 120Y, with brown vinyl roof. As standard for the 120Y it had plenty of rust. It was traded in for an ’82 Corolla in the mid ’80’s or so, so I never drove it.
Son of a gun….I have no idea what my first ride was.
Unfortunately both my parents are gone , and remaining relatives are non-car people and quite elderly.
BUT if I were to make an educated guess based on pictures from the era (keeping in mind Dad would change cars about as often as he changed shirts)
I would say my first ride was probably a Hudson of the 50-51 variety.
Dad had 2 or so of the Hornets and was fond of them.
One thing for sure, I’m positive I wasn’t strapped in a car seat for my ride home from the hospital
I remember standing on car seats while my dad was driving.
Seat belts? One of my brothers fell out of the car as it was going around a corner.
Too funny, how the hell we ever made to adulthood without helmets, padding, seatbelts, airbags etc. while eating sugary crap is beyond me.
I still remember doing EXACTLY what this young man pictured did — I was three or four and it was the kitchen outlet and yes, I was definitely grounded (literally).
I think we all do it… once
I am told I did it with a key as a two year old. Sent me tumbling across the room and scared my mother to death.
Yeah finding out AC was a much different animal than DC when I was around seven. (don’t take a battery powered toy motor to a household socket).
You can add me to this list–plugged a key (where did I get a key?) into a socket in the kitchen and got knocked off my feet, when I was about 2.
First ride was in my parents’ 1968 Impala SS coupe (327 engine). I think we had it until about 1977.
First car I drove was a 1981 Olds Cutlass Cruiser, in 1985. That car was two removed from the Chevy.
It occurred to me the other day that the ’68 was the last Chevy passenger car my parents ever bought, though my dad has had three Chevy trucks in the interim.
23/10/57 I came home in a Mk1 Ford Consul I think it was a 51,Dad can’t remember.I know it stayed with us for quite a while,it was a horrid pale green (Ludlow Green was it’s Ford name,Mum had a MK1 Cortina in a similar colour) It became Mum’s first car when she learned to drive and Dad gota Mk2 Zephyr.My brother and sister came home in it too PS.I love that 69 Fairlane.
This ’57 Chevy 210 two-door wagon (that’s Mom in the driver’s seat, before I was born). To this day I want one, more than a Nomad. Dad traded it in on a Lark in 1961.
My first ride (back in 1963) was in a Beetle as well – my dad’s blue ’61. I actually drove it (well, sort of). One of my earliest memories is at about 3 years of age when I sat in my dad’s lap and held on to the steering wheel while he worked the pedals and gearshift. I’d say he did most of the actual steering. That ’69 Fairlane would have made for a nice first ride as well, though it was 6 years too late for me.
’58 Ford Fairlane, acqua (light greenish?) and white two tone. We had the car a few years and I remember being transfixed by the protruding tailights and recall the sound of the turn signals.
Next up was the huge, to a 4 year old, comparatively luxe ’64 Buick LeSabre wagon…
In St. John New Brunswick on March 21, 1968, I was driven home in a navy blue 1967 Vauxhall Viva…!…Dad didn’t have this car very long (many, many, many failures according to him) and it was replaced in 1972 with a 1971 Chevelle 100 Coupe…No carpet, no radio, no right-hand mirror but it DID have the optional deluxe wheelcovers, a 250 inline 6 and automatic tranny with upgraded fabric on the seats! I didn’t get to drive either one but MY first car was a 1970 Chevelle Malibu with a rockin’ 307!
1970 Chevy Nova, 2-door. Rust, er, *Yellow* on black with the six.
Just before turning off the highway towards home, the brakes failed. I have a picture of my parents holding me that day after finally arriving home safely – no one would ever know the harrowing experience they just had by looking at that picture.
The Nova was gone 3 years later, replaced by a 78 Nova.
Wish I knew. That was 52 years ago this fall.
I think my family was going through some lean times before the ’57 Ford seen on these pages recently. One of my aunts on my mother’s side was a nurse at the hospital where I was born, so my first ride may have been in her car??
The first car I piloted solo was my dad’s ’64 Karmann Ghia. This would’ve been around ’73 or ’74 (and a few years prior to any license.) Closed course, but NOT a professional driver.
1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe, Olds 350 V8 and automatic. When I came home from the hospital it was that light metallic blue that many of them were in that era. After I was born but just toddling it was repainted in metallic silver. The color and that car are my earliest automotive memory, I still have occasional VIVID dreams of seeing that car in the garage of my parents new home (built in 1978) washed, waxed, and gleaming in the setting sunlight. It may have been the washing my Dad gave it before trading it in.
Brought home form the hospital in my dads new 51 Mercury coupe. medium blue in color. Never got to drive it as dad traded it for a new ’56 Ford Victoria hardtop. I can imagine what did happen to it…. Think about it. A 51 Mercury 2dr Coupe. sitting in a used car lot in late 1955. Can you say ‘Lead Sled” First car I did drive. :Lessons as a 15 year old. was the’ 59 Bonneville my dad had bought new and was a handme down vis my older sister and brother. Was to have been mine but 5 months before my 26th birthday. A toranado threw a restaurant on top of it….Well, aprt of the restaurant. Car was still drivable but was battered badly and the insurance co. totalled it. Upshot was dad put the money in my car account so I was able to get something a bit more safe for a 16 year old. That Bonneville had Tri-Power.
1958 Chevrolet. Delray 2-door. My dad’s first new car. The only extra-cost option was an overdrive gear for the 3-on-the tree. I’m sure it was not a real barn-burner. Ours was this color scheme but not lowered of course. Dad is 86 now and drives a 1991 Toyota Hilux 2WD with about 70,000 miles. The only extra-cost option is an extended cab.
1988 Ford Thunderbird Sport. 155hp 302 with SFI, 8.8 rear, limited slip diff, multi-articulated buckets, full console, and full analog gauges. Purchased when I was 17 in Nov. 1997 for $4000. Kept it for seven years. Wish I still had it. It served me well.
1974 Mazda RX4 that Dad drove into the 80s when it was burning more oil than gas and he replaced it with a ’79 LUV.
1953 Cadillac Series 62. I remember a lot about this car, because my dad sold it to my grandfather who drove for years. Not only did I come home from the hospital in it, It was also the first car I ever drove.
I’ve been told that I took it for a spin through the backyard when my absentminded mother had to run back in the house to retrieve something. and left me in the running car in my bassinet on the middle front seat. I somehow reached up and grabbed the column shifter, putting the car in drive and off to the backyard I went with my frantic mother in pursuit. Fortunately, a row of hedges kept me from going more then 50′ I was all of 6 months old and knew I had a thing for cars. When my mother caught up with the car she said I was laughing hysterically as though I had the time of my life. Mom, up until this moment in my life, this was the high point
White Mk II Ford Cortina 1600 sedan in December 1973. It was traded on a Mk III 2.0 wagon when I was 3-4, so my sole memory is of the small chrome-ringed warning lights on the dashboard for the high beam an indicators – I liked to put my fingers on those lights in the hope they would do something magical, but I was eternally disappointed.
Quite possibly a mid 70’s white/light gray Escarabajo (Beetle). From my very early childhood I remember a blue Beetle and a white or blue Malibu.
My kids OTOH… boy’s first ride (’09) was in my 91 Isuzu Impulse XS. The little lady (’13) arrived in the current ride, 97 Holden Calais.
My son at 1.5 yo already knew how to sneak behind the driver seat and into his chair. Right off the boat down here he was in tears when I explained to him we no longer had a car. He went to the first car in the parking lot to the driver’s door to climb in.
Probably a Checker cab. My parents had no car at the time, living in New York City.
While isn’t this the definition of coincidence. I just finished a piece in which I mention the first car I rode in.
I came home from the hospital in my grandfather’s 1992 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency. Same colors as this one.
11-30-1984. I came home in a gold/gold, 4 door, 1971 Chevrolet Impala. 350, automatic. My dad had purchased it for $500.00 in 1983. He adored that car, until my mother disemboweled it on a granite bench going the wrong way around the Missouri State Capital Building in late ’85, early ’86.
In 1977 I came back home in a ’67 Ford Falcon. A few months later my dad bought a ’78 Toyota Corona.
Used 50 Ford, three on the tree, old man bought it when they moved from the Bronx to Levittown.
I’m fairly sure I came home in a 1954 ford(which I have no memory of ), but my oldest memory is riding in 1949 ford that was painted that Color – going down Kingshighway in Cape Giraradeau.
I have a thing for the shoebox Fords. Don’t know if it’s nostalgia or that they were really good looking cars for the time.
My ride home from the hospital was my father’s British Racing Green Triumph TR-7. There was a perfectly good Pontiac Grand Prix (my mother’s), but he chose the 2 seat sports car to pick my her and I up at the hospital. This of course led to a big argument on the way home, and the first photos at the house are pretty hilarious since they both look mad that I’m there.
I still think he made the right choice, who wants to come home in a Colonnade Grand Prix? 😉
Uh…me by a MILE, and I think a certain Lt. here would also.
My ride home was in a 1964-ish IHC Scout. Dad bought it for Upper Peninsula Michigan use. He always talked about what a terrible car that was. My favorite story was how the hood flew up while driving not once, but twice.
I remember it much later as the plow rig for my grandpa’s machine shop. By that time the body had complete dissolved and all that was left was the drivers seat and the front clip. I played on it during the summer when it would sit outside.
Oh crap, guess I should have read the article first, thought you meant my first car @ 16.
Guess my first ride was in my dads white 67 olds 98 convertible (which couldn’t have been more than a few months old considering that was my birf year), although I don’t remember it. My first car memory was his brown 69 with brown cloth interior. I remember calling it the top-down car, and sitting in the back seat while my mom was putting the top down one day.
My very first was a ’67 Galaxie 500 fastback, powder blue with a white vinyl top and fender skirts. Less than a year later, due to an upcoming long trip and at Mom’s insistence, Dad traded it in on a new light metallic-blue ’73 Pontiac Laurentian 2-door hard top. He did get it with a with a 427 and dual exhausts, but in every other way it was very much the base-model Catalina/Bel Air hybrid that all Laurentians were. Dad reluctantly sold it in ’82.
1-26-54. I’m pretty sure my dad had a 52 Plymouth at the time. Dad was a trade every 3 years kind of guy (to be fair, he probably put 25-30,000 miles/year on his cars in his work as the County Agricultural agent), so the first car I remember is the 55 Chevy (no SBC in this one, Dad was a 6 cyl kind of guy until 1964).
A 1-year-old 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III in Moondust Emerald Metallic with dark green vinyl top, green leather interior. It looked exactly like the pictured car only “ours” had that pointy hood ornament & cowl-mounted Starship Enterprise Headlight dimmer..
It broke down often but it was the most interesting beautiful car to me. I played with its knobs, lights, and gadgets a lot, especially after it was pushed into the backyard after breaking down for the last time.
One day my father was pouring gas down its carb while my mother was cranking the engine and I watched in ablazement as his arm & cup-o-gas went up in flames when the car backfired through the carb. He hit the ground immediately & put the fire out shortly before their trip to the ER.
I’ll never forget the day not long afterward seeing the scummy looking men that bought “the Linky” & presumably destroyed it. Maybe I’ll own a Mark III someday, but I kinda doubt that will happen.
Wow, the one Mark III in the world worse than my father’s! Dad’s had lots of problems, but it never caught fire. In the late 80s, I came very close to buying a 71 Mark III in the same color combo as yours. It was a very nice original car, though with some body filler and a very nice repaint. It was owned by an old guy who kept it as a toy. I decided to buy a really ratty 61 T Bird instead. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I was driven home from the hospital in a base stripper 1978 Nova like the one pictured here. Uneventful ride home in a dull car from a routine birth.
A few years later, the door flew open in a routine turn and the car was replaced by that paragon of dependability, a 1984 Audi 5000 turbo.
A silver 74 Mustang 2. My folks traded their 240Z for it.
1973, my folks took me home in my grandfather’s 1964 Pontiac 4 door. My folks had a 68 Fairlane at home, but wanted 4 doors for the ride home.
A ’73 Rally-Sport Nova. What can I say? My parents were cool like that 🙂
Plus, the back seat made life easier with a baby. My father still occasionally makes mention of how I’d kick the shifter of his four-speed ’64 K10 stepside (the other family vehicle of the day) out of gear while riding in the middle jumpseat.
In 1971, it would have either my grandfather’s ’66 Galaxie hardtop or my mother’s ’68 Charger 440. Either one suits me fine, but I never got the chance to drive them.
A gold ’66 Chrysler 300 2-door hardtop with a 383 V8, auto., and gold interior. My father later traded it to my grandfather, who sold it sometime around 1979 or so. Not sure I’ve managed to top that since.
Cool! That “gold” colour was either saddle bronze, spice gold or moss gold. It’s amazing how many colour choices there were.
It was a 1977 Lincoln Versailles. When my dad met my mom he had a 1976 Lincoln Mark IV Bill Blass. On my first day of 1st grade I was driven to school in our 1985 Lincoln Continental Givenchy. I drove myself to the first day of 12th grade in the same car. My first car was a 1979 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe. I have also owned a 1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V Collector’s Series in 2001-2. I had a 1979 Lincoln Continental Town Car from 2007 to 2012. My mom currently drives a 2007 Lincoln MKZ AWD, my wife has a 2008 Lincoln MKZ, and I currently have a 2010 Lincoln MKZ.
I am not sure, but there may be a pattern here.
Now, if Ford could only clone your family . . . . . .
psst, with that many Lincolns I think he may be a Ford
No, but my dad had an auto body shop. I was exposed to a healthy dose of Cadillacs growing up as well. Two early 80’s Fleetwood Broughams. A black on burgundy 81 Sedan deVille with a V6 4.1 An all black 1985 Eldorado. A red on white 1991 Sedan de Ville. For my second car my dad restored a 1971 Cadillac Sedan de Ville for me. Candy apple red with an off white leather interior. That got a lot of attention at high school in the late 90’s let me tell you. In 2001 he gave me a ’99 Deville. I owned it for 7 years and 135,000 miles until the Northstar had a head gasket failure in 2008. I like the look of the new XTS. Next car will be either an CPO XTS or MKS. I hate those names though. On my bucket list is both a 94-96 Fleetwood Brougham and a 97-98 Mark VIII.
1964 Plymouth Valiant, replaced when I was 4 years old, so just enough time to know what was and remember it.
First ride was in a 49 Chevy Styline Deluxe 2 door sedan. Mint Green in color. Do not remember it since it was replaced shortly after I was born by a 54 Belair 2 door Sedan in Light Blue. Dad kept it till it had 100,000 miles and I hit the windshield in it after he rear ended someone when I was 3. Still have the scar. Barely remember playing in it and knocking it out of gear and it rolled into a ditch at the end of the driveway. If that counts I guess that is first drive though I was only 4 at the time. First car to drive was my Granddad’s 57 Chevy 210 Delray Club Coupe, 6 with a 3 speed and in what I believe was called Dusky rose with a white roof. It eventually failed state inspection due to rust, when I was around 14, so I never drove it legally. It was replaced by a 64 Buick Lesabre. The first car I drove legally was Dads 67 Plymouth Fury II in Turquoise with a 318 and Torqueflight.