Little GTO

     Growing up in the fifties and sixties was great, one of the reasons was all of the new and exciting things that came down the pike.
     I think the first thing on every young boys mind was cars, we couldn't wait to get our hands on one even if it was only the family car available only on Saturday night. The car we wanted wasn't just a car it had to be a hot rod with a souped up big block engine, wide slick racing tires mounted on Micky Thompson mag wheels and brightly painted flames from the head lights past the front door. We didn't even care if it was new or old or even if it would run.
     Most of us dreamed about the day we would drive to school in our own car and until that day came we bought and read every hot rod magazine that came out and wasted notebook paper drawing pictures of hot cars we would one day own. We were envious of the kids whose parents gave them a car and let them drive where ever they wanted or at the least the kids who got to use Mom's car a couple of days a week.
     I was a dreamer, we had only one car and Dad was not to interested in giving it up. I was seventeen when I finally got my license, I was working and offered to pay for the insurance but that too didn't go over well. I didn't get to drive the family car until I came home from boot camp and Dad had checked with the insurance agent that it would not cost him any more on his premiums.
     Because I had no wheels I didn't go on dates, I had girlfriends that was not a problem as long as they understand it was a school day romance. My first real date was for the Senior Banquet ( community standards wouldn't allow dancing ). I had been going with this girl for a couple of months and at the last minute she broke it off but we agreed to go to the banquet together, she even let me hold her hand. My second date was when I came home from boot camp, my mother fixed me up with a nice girl she knew. Turns out she was a preachers daughter, she was beautiful, she was the first girl I ever kissed and she stuck her tongue in my ear while I was driving, I sure hated to take her home.
     Months later I met Linda, she lived about twenty miles from the base so I learned all about the art of hitchhiking. Dad  called to tell me I could take over the payments on Pat's 1960 Ford and I jumped at it. The car was about as plain and dumpy looking as it could be but I had to start somewhere. It was a beginning for Linda and I even though I only had the car for eighteen days before Linda wrecked it, a car was a small price to pay to have her beside me for the next forty seven years.
     Two years later we got out of the Navy and came home, we were driving a 1962 Chevy Impala hardtop we had traded for so we wouldn't have to make a payment for one month. The Chevy was a great car and is a sought after model even today but it was still not the hot rod of my dreams.  We hooked up with a school buddy and his wife and started hanging out with them, they had a 1967 GTO one of the hottest cars on the road. It wasn't long til I got the bug.
     I was envious, here I had spent four years in the Navy and had little to show for it while my friend was not drafted and he was driving a Goat, as they were called. My envy got the better of me, I had to have a "Bad -ss car" so against Linda's better judgement I took over the bills and got us out of debt. We damn near starved but in the end we were debt free and I was on the hunt.
     I found a 1969 GTO  for $2000 I got it for $1800. It was Canary yellow with black interior a 400 cubic inch engine and a four barrel Holly carburetor, there were bucket seats and a Hurst four speed stick shift in the console, there was a decal on the dash that read "Caution this car is equipped with a Hurst shifter, shift as hard as you like just don't break your arm".This was a car of my dreams if not the car and because Linda did not like driving it, it was all mine.
     We kept the car for for a little over a year, GTO stood for gas, tires and oil, I never had any problem with the oil but gas and tires was a different story, I couldn't take off with burning rubber and with gas prices on the rise we had to trade. One of the big issues was that Linda never really liked it, she had a hard time getting it into reverse to the point of asking strangers to put it in reverse for her. Maybe she was even a little scared of the power and speed, I don't know because she always put her feelings aside in favor of mine, it was my dream.
     Through the years we had some nice cars but they were generally "Family" cars, they were nice, comfortable cars that favored the needs of Linda and the boys. Years later when the boys were gone and I was nearing retirement our needs changed we went from cars to pickup trucks. They were functional in many ways so we bought the last vehicle we would ever need - a 2007 Ford F 150 truck, it is about to turn 12 years old and has almost 150,000 miles, maybe it will be the last one I own.
     When Kay and I married she drove a 2011  F 150 truck with somewhere around 30,000 miles, we recently turned 100,000 miles. Now we are a two truck family and are forever hauling something around, they won't go as fast as a GTO or drink as much gas but they will get us to where we need to go.
     At my age a GTO is an old mans fantasy, a refusal to let go of a lost youth. I miss my GTO but my dreams have changed, practicality trumps fantasy, instead of a muscle car I dream of hitting the lottery so I can buy a new boat and a new truck to pull it.