Cars and Chick Peas

All through college and while working in NYC I never had or needed a car, but when I got the job at Brockport I needed to borrow my folk’s box van to move up from Long Island.

It was fun to have the van and I even used it to pick up lumber for the first play I worked on at Brockport, but soon my parents wanted it back and drove up and exchanged it for their Ford Pinto, a wonderful little car complete with an 8-Track player!

This is the infamous car that got Ford in trouble when it was alleged that they decided it was cheaper to pay off a few lawsuits then fix the problem with the gas tanks that made the cars explode in accidents.

Ford Pinto

It was one of the first hatch-backs and was not quite as ugly as the AMC Pacer and just five years later I would buy a new Ford Escort GT, the car that replaced to Pinto.

It was to be my parents’ only trip up to Brockport and I gave them the full 50-cent tour.

My younger readers may not understand why I find the next story so funny.

While out with my parents for dinner my father looks down at his salad it says loudly:

 “What’s this in my salad?”

“Mmm, it’s a chick pea Dad, you know a garbanzo bean.”

While common today’s salads, back in 1982 my Dad was still expecting the basic 1950’s salad: lettuce, tomato and maybe an onion slice, but chick peas, olives or sunflower seeds were just too new for him at that time.

For those of us a bit older it is amazing how much food has changed over the years and that younger people think that we always had microwaves and that chichen has always been boneless.

When I drove the Pinto home at Christmas I found that my parents had bought me my own car; a green 1972 AMC Javelin.

It cost $500!

AMC Javelin

The car may have had the look of a classic muscle car, but with only about 100 hp it seemed to have less power than my John Deere mower.

AMC did make the AMX model that was sexy, powerful and had a cult following, but my base model Javelin had little power and died less than two years late, but through the kindness and help of a few friendly auto parts dealers and car mechanics I did learn a lot working on that car.

I learned how to replace gas and oil pumps, the starter motor and assorted filters, fuses and belts and I was even taught how to “Hot Wire” the car with just a screw driver.

As much "Fun" (Read: lots of work, pain in the butt) as the Javelin was I had arranged to buy my sister's 1977 Camaro Rally Sport soon after she gave birth to her first son and needed a family car.

It was one of the last years that cars had real crome bumpers.

Camaro Rally Sport

Just a few days before I was to go to Long Island pick up the Camaro the Javelin blew its transmission.

Even with just the base V-8, my Camaro still had tons of power and because it was the LT model it had AC and power everything.

I enjoyed driving it for the next few years and managed to get only one speeding ticket.

Although fun to drive it was not at all a practical car and soon after turning 30 I thought it was time to get my first brand new  and “Adult” car, but for a few years I felt cool zipping about in my Camaro.

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I start my 30th year teaching at Brockport on Monday look forward to new challenges and adventures.

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