MY EMBARRASSING CAR!

’64 Ford Falcon

You never forget your first car.

The ’64 Ford Falcon was Sky Mist Blue. I didn’t know that was the name of the color when I was a seventeen-year-old girl.

I knew to check the oil, and I knew to pack gas money, cigarettes and strawberry-flavored lip-gloss in my fringed leather purse.

Back in the 70s, I thought I drove the junkiest car in the high school parking lot. Boys drove huge cars that dominated the best parking spaces — Impalas, El Caminos, and even an orange ‘Cuda.

Some girls had hot cars. Brenda had a Gold Nugget special ’68 Mustang. Michelle drove a Camaro. My Ford Falcon, relatively small, was blue like faded Levi’s. The hinge broke on the driver’s side, and the door had to be swapped out for a dark blue one, so my ‘old faded jeans’ had a big dark patch.

I kept a couple changes of clothes in the back seat, jeans and halter-tops squished into the corners, maybe even a bra back there, but strictly for costume changes.

No one was having sex in my car. To be honest, it wasn’t cool enough. I didn’t have any guy friends who didn’t have their own car.

Anyway, it had a family car vibe.