Some people have had an exciting car or two. If you're Some Cranky Guy, you've had a whole series of them, each with a story:
I owned two snot-orange colored Fiats. Two seaters. One was for parts. And that wasn’t enough. I had a poor battery connection, so my brother taught me this neat trick – hammer a steel nail between the battery cable and the battery post to improve the connection. It worked like a charm; the car never had a starting problem! However, when an electrical fire developed while the car was in the shop for minor repairs, my mechanic tried frantically to pull the battery cable away from the battery, only to discover that some yahoo had nailed it to the battery! He managed to push the fiat out of his garage before it burned his entire business down. He also banned me and all of my cars from his establishment.
I don't have any particular memories of cars I've owned, probably because I don't work on them. Buying the same make/model/color every time also might have something to do with it. They've had no quirky "personalities" and I've never called one "Bessie," "Annie," or anything else. They roll; I steer. That's about it. Another life-experience absent from my repertoire: a glimpse of orange-colored snot. How do you get that, exactly? Snorting the packet of dry cheddar that comes in the macaroni and cheese box would do it for sure, but I don't know anybody who snorts cheese. At least I don't think I do.
Maybe some of y'all have stories of cars and/or snot you'd like to share.
We owned an olive green Fiat - boy do I remember some stories with that car! My then husband really liked that vehicle - I am glad I don't have that vehicle any more - headaches! More could go wrong with it and not many wanted to work on it! Hadn't thought about that vehicle in a LONG time - it seated 4, but was 2 door.
Posted by: Cathy at June 27, 2006 10:52 PMThose are fiberglass cars, aren't they? I'm waiting for a full report from the Human Genome Project because I know there must be an anti-fiberglass gene. It would be impossible for any member of my family to own a car like that. It's just something we pass on, along with high-intelligence and a predilection for laughing at other people's misery.
Posted by: Donnah at June 27, 2006 11:13 PMYou haven't lived until you've owned an MGB-GT. Try to get parts...nope, not around here. The car stayed on cinder blocks more than it stayed on the road. But it was a beaut! LOL
Posted by: Trambo at June 27, 2006 11:48 PMI had a friend that took a summer job at a factory that packed the legendary "Vom-Sorb" product for shipment to school janitors the world over. You'll remember it as the peculiar orange saw dust based powder that janitors would spread across the hazmat expanses of school cafeteria fare unexpectedly and violently ejected in the middle of school hallways and gyms during your days of elementary education.
He initially found employment that summer going door to door canvassing on behalf of an Ohio politician but opted for a second job when he found it less distasteful to spend the day packing bags with Vom-Sorb. The downside was a shocking orange handkerchief at the end of the day.
Vom-Sorb. God, did that bring back memories. I had no idea what it was called, but yes, I have vivid images of its being used in my elementary school. Little kids really throw up a lot, don't they?
Posted by: Donnah at June 28, 2006 12:20 AMMeh, you ask, I supply. :)
I had a few 1973 Fiat 850 Sport Coupes. One was a driver and the others I scavenged parts off of.
I had to learn Italian to read the wiring schematics and it got to the point that I knew where every bolt was and the torques for them. I literally rebuilt one from the ground up after a carb fire. The darn things were rust prone because the battery was in the front which caused the 'trunk' area to rot. I learned all about pop rivets and cutting/bending aluminum repairing that mess. Then I learned how to use fiberglass to create a front air dam to cover up the area where I had trimmed off all the rot. It handled like a gocart, probably because it was RWD and had an 850cc engine. Not real fast but it would hold 75 to 80 on long runs down I 65 to the coast. I finally sold the thing to some kid who had 5 of them growing in his back yard.
I gotta say that if I knew what kind of time and cash I was going to drop on it I would have bought a muscle car that had AC.
I think you can create orange snot by laughing too hard while you're drinking Nehi Orange Soda, so that you blow it out your nose.
If I recall correctly.
Posted by: dymphna at June 28, 2006 08:25 AMMy friend, Ruthanne, taught me to drive in her 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk. We drove it up to Macon, GA to meet my honey at the time. She left the car with me and went to New Jersey to join some friends on a sort-of commune in the Delaware Water Gap. That was the best car on the planet, even if it did have issues. When my honey and I drove it up to Cloud Farm the thermostat got stuck and cooked us alive and the hood catch released and the hood flew up over the top of the car while I was driving at around 55 miles an hour. We drove that car for months at Cloud Farm on and off road. Don't know what happened to it, but that would be my dream car to have now...
Friend of mine had a snot-orange mid-70's Mustang (from that 70's/80's vintage when they were just awful looking). She was cruising along fast on the freeway and blew past a cop and saw that he was going to take off after her. She got off on the next off-ramp, got back on going the direction and drove a couple miles, then got back on the freeway again.
Drove along and saw the cop again pulled off to the side, writing a ticket on *another snot-orange* 70-something Mustang.
Posted by: james at June 30, 2006 09:28 PM