my first car? - Focus on Scugog

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MY FIRST CAR?
Get a bunch of guys and gals together and it’s inevitable
that the topic of “my first car” comes up. This past summer
there has been at least two car shows in Port Perry, plus
a stopover by the National Corvette Club with about 60
classic and newer ‘vettes’ parked here for an afternoon. Add
to that, every Tuesday, car enthusiasts of the Cruisin’ Classics
Car Club gather together to swap stories and drool over
sparkling paint, chrome and big block engines. This month,
Focus on Scugog approached a few locals who agreed to
reminisce about their first set of wheels.
MIKE ADAM
GUS BROWN PONTIAC, BUICK, GMC
Mike worked in Toronto for an entire summer when he was 16 years
old to save up $800 to buy his first car - a 1966 burgundy Chevelle with a
283cc engine. He recalls the car was really nice on one side, but the other
side had body fill and holes. So, when he returned to Grade 10 at Port
Perry High School that fall, he would park his car facing the wrong way on
the street so the bad side couldn’t be seen.
He said it was so great having the freedom to come and go when and
where he wanted to, and in particular he remembers packing up the car in
the winter to drive to hockey games with his buddies.
Mike only kept his first car one year before selling it and purchasing
his favourite car ever - a 1967 Chevelle. He’s not about to forget it either,
since it greets him every day as a screensaver on his work computer.
MAGGIE DAVISON
CARQUEST - PORT PERRY
PAUL FLIELER
FLIELER SERVICE STATION
Not everyone gets a brand
new car as their first one - but
Paul Flieler did. It was his father
who made him save every cent
of the $5,400 it cost to purchase
new at Hooker Chevrolet Oldsmobile at Kinsale. The car he
bought was a beautiful cranberry
red 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass
with white interior. “I wanted a standard transmission but my dad made me
get an automatic,” he says with a
smile. And maybe his father was
wise because Paul says it was fast
and admits with a grin, “It would
needle out at 125 mph and I
tested it many times.”
It was Paul’s favourite car and
he still sometimes wishes he had
it, but he eventually sold it to his
sister and he’s not sure where it
is today.
FRED HAINES
SIGNWORKS
The first car Fred Haines owned came before
he could actually drive legally. He was 15 years old
when he purchased a 1967 Chevy II Nova Super
Sport with a 283cc engine for $200 cash.
The car needed a lot of work, but since he
worked part-time at Gord Lewis Motors he was
able to work on it in his spare time. He replaced
the engine with a 350cc and painted the original
sandy-gold colour to a gloss black. “It looked
great,” he recalls.
One of his favourite memories of this old
car was winter driving. The car had vinyl seats, no
heater or defroster and he warned his friends to
dress warm whenever they were going somewhere. “We had a lot of fun in that car, but many of our
‘lady friends’ were not too impressed,” he smiles.
His favourite car is still a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda which he purchased in 1985 for $1,200 and
he still owns and drives.
Maggie has been working in the car business for 25 years, but when
asked about her first car - she hesitated. “I think it was a silver 1979 Chevette” she finally replied, admitting she knew very little about cars at that
time.
Maggie was 18 years old and working at the Port Perry Diary Bar
when she purchased her wheels privately and for cash – but she can’t
remember how much she paid. She kept the little four-banger for about
five years before trading up.
What Maggie really liked about the Chevette was that is was small
and easy to park, since she hated parallel parking. She remembers many
good times, but mostly her trips with a group of girlfriends to the drive-in
theatre in Pefferlaw.
When asked about her favourite car - she smiles and says believe it
or not, it was a little four-door Skoda that we used here at Carquest as a
delivery vehicle.
LARRY TAYLOR
TAYLOR FORD - PORT PERRY
Larry was 18 years old, a graduate of Uxbridge High School and working as an apprentice mechanic at a Stouffville garage when he purchased his first car back in 1964. And he can still remember the 1960
Pontiac Strato Chief sedan he bought at Hooker’s Sales in Kinsale. The
green four door sedan had only six cylinders and Larry recalls re-building that engine, cylinder by cylinder over the next year. Finally an old
friend convinced him to put a new engine in the old clunker .
After about one year, he moved up to a 1965 Ford Galaxie 500
convertible - which he claims was probably the favourite car he ever
owned. It had leather seats, an eight-track cassette radio and all the
bells and whistles a car of that calibre had in those days.
When asked about his favourite memory of the car, he sits back in
his chair and smiles - then says “I have a lot of good memories, but I
can’t talk about most of them.