All tax papers having been submitted I pondered how to spend the small refund I am entitled to.
Common sense says do not. Spend.
Stash it in the savings account for a rainy day because you can count on those.
Remember back in the dark ages when a savings account gained interest?
What a concept.
Saving money made sense!
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English people of my generation were brought up to only buy what you could actually pay for.
There was something people called the “never never” but it was frowned on.
It was how I bought my first new car, because who ever had enough to buy a car outright?
It was around 1965 when I got my Ford Falcon. I think the price was $3,000.
It was a vast amount to me in those days, on a tiny part time salary!
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When I was sent to live in the States aged 16, my dear old grandad gave me a small amount of money with which I was able to pay my first year’s college fees and purchase a second hand car.
A neighbour was a car dealer and he sold me an old Ford Fairlane which was a real clunker.
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The college is in Garden City and getting there by train from Syosset was expensive and time-consuming. In winter it was an ordeal.
So learning to drive and having a car was essential.
The driver’s ed lessons I’d taken in high school had taught me nothing, so I learned to drive in my aunt’s zappy Sunbeam Alpine.
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Wendy and Jill did not accompany us while I learned but Kay and I took them out on fine Sunday afternoons. Even in those days I enjoyed road trips.
In the background: my Fairlane tank.
The day of my driving test we waited in a queue. When my turn came, steam was pouring from under the hood.
“Mam, your car is overheating.”
said the examiner.
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We went in search of a garage where a nice man topped up the radiator which fortunately fixed the problem since Kay and I never had any money or other means of dealing with breakdowns.
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Already nervous about the driving test, I fully expected to fail but in due course my license was approved.
The Fairlane was an automatic but it had no power steering and it was huge.
Never have I felt so under qualified as when I drove that thing.
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It was bad enough on the highway but in the crowded parking lot at Adelphi, I got stuck because I simply hadn’t the strength to manoeuvre the car out of narrow spaces. If people parked too close, I was trapped. And perplexed.
Then one day in Garden City a woman drove through a stop sign and hit me broadside.
She emerged from her vehicle in a fury:
“Look what you’ve done to my car!”
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It didn’t seem as if it could have been my fault but we exchanged information and I proceeded on to that day’s lectures trembling.
It’s an indication of how innocent, stupid, naive I was that I was afraid I might be deported over this incident.
And I had to go home and tell uncle.
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My car was on his insurance policy and this would increase his premium. That was bad enough.
Then the other driver decided to take me to court.
My life experience thus far had been that adults were always right and I fretted over how I was going to pay for the woman’s damages.
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The judge however, scrutinised the file for a moment, then observed to the woman that left turns from a stop sign can be tricky and dismissed the case.
Very great was my relief!
The Fairlane was tank-like but it had been shunted across two lanes, sustaining a large dent in one door.
Whether my uncle’s insurance claimed for the damage I don’t know, but the dent remained. One of many I acquired in that car and others!
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The Fairlane and I just did not get along and I was easily persuaded to trade it in for a new Falcon.
About ten days after taking possession of it, someone backed out of a parking space by the train station and put the first dent in the passenger side door.
College loans and car loans were the only kind I ever had until I got the notion I should own property.
My basic philosophy has not changed though and fortunately my needs are modest.
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So the tax refund will go into savings.
Yesterday I was convinced that a new computer might soon be needed, every entry I made taking me into a spiral till I was ready to throw things.
Today we’re on a even keel…so far.
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While searching for the Sunbeam picture, I came upon this, my first encounter with a Maine winter.
My aunt’s cockers, Misty and Tammy.
Great new header pic – several outstanding photos in the post plus some oldies but goodies. Entertaining post.
Big cars without power steering were a pain indeed. The first ambulances I drove in London didn’t have power steering, though they did all have automatic gearboxes. I was happy to soon be posted to an Ambulance Station that had just taken delivery of new vehicles with full power steering.
Years before that, I recall my dad buying a car where a heater was an ‘option’. He didn’t pay the extra, so we used to drive around in the winter with blankets over our legs. I was only young, but I remember how cold it was getting into that car.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Carolyn, for your musings on cars and driving, all fascinating to a not driving me, and
I don’t have a car, either big or small!
You look beautiful in this picture!
Joanna
It seems that a lot of people now are fitting dash cams so they can prove when another person is at fault for collisions. Some manufacturers are fitting them as standard in new cars.
It was fun to read your memories of a long time ago. And I love the pictures of you, your aunt and the lovely cockers. Our mindset completely changed after we walked the Camino in Spain.The realisation that one doesn’t need a lot to live was an absolute eye opener. Many of our friends gather ‘stuff’ and we always want to know from them when is enough enough … a question that none of them can answer.