"My Little Pony"
GRATITUDE & ACCOMPLISHMENT
It was the first NEW car I ever purchased. I was a 17-year-old college freshman. My mom, and my brother Tom and I had moved to Jackson from the San Fernando Valley. I enrolled at Delta College in Stockton—45 miles away (one way)—and the car we had was a real clunker, sure to break down with all that use. Mom told me that she had been talking with our landlord, Mr. Art Telfer, and he agreed to purchase a car for me to drive and I could pay him back without interest, so long as I paid each month on time! We sat down together and determined how much I could afford each month out of my paycheck from my full-time job at McDonald’s in Stockton.
Then we drove to Sacramento to shop for a dependable car. To Mr. Telfer, “dependable” was Ford’s middle name. Besides, he knew the sales manager. To this day, I remember choosing the Pinto and listening to Mr. Telfer negotiate the very best price he could for his “very trustworthy and deserving friend”. I also remember the exact amount of the check Mr. Telfer wrote for the car, including taxes and licensing fees--$2410.00. I thought that was unusual, because there were no odd cents. It was exactly $2410.00. As soon as we got back to Jackson and showed Mom the car and gave her a ‘test drive’, Mr. Telfer said my first payment would be due the following week in the amount of $10 (because I still had not purchased my books!), then $100 a month thereafter for 2 years. I actually paid it off in less time, because I wanted to show Mr. and Mrs. Telfer that their trust in me was not misplaced.
FUN TIMES, FRUSTRATION, AND A BIT OF ANGER
The car was a good car, for the most part. Marilyn and I took it on quite a few dates to the mountains, to the beach, and everywhere in between. About 6 months prior to our marriage though, it started to give me some problems. There were many times when it wouldn’t start. It was a 4-speed stick-shift, so I could get it started by ‘popping the clutch’, but that required either a pretty steep hill or someone else to help. That was usually Marilyn at the wheel while I pushed, unless we could find someone else to push us. One night in particular will always stay with me.
Marilyn and I had just come out of one of our Pre Cana marriage prep sessions with the priest who was going to perform our ceremony, and the car was doing its thing. Marilyn got behind the wheel and I started to push. She couldn’t seem to get it to start, and I was getting angry and frustrated. Finally, after a dozen or so attempts, it started! But I was so out of breath (and I was in excellent shape, then) we both thought I was going to have a heart attack!
We took the car to a friend of her grandfather, who was a pretty knowledgeable mechanic, and he seemed to fix the problem. Things went great, until we were in the 2nd day of our honeymoon!
MORE FRUSTRATION, MORE GRATITUDE, A LITTLE HUMOR
Our plan was to travel all the way up Highway 1 to Portland, then cut inland to Interstate 5 and go home a week later. We had spent the night in Lakeport, then headed to the coast. Just above Fort Bragg, on an uphill grade, the Pinto decided to cough and spurt, then the engine stopped. I did manage to get it to the side of the road, but it was a narrow part of the highway and we needed to get to a safe spot. I had to push the car uphill while Marilyn steered. We got to a driveway to a farmhouse and started to discuss our options, because I knew nothing about car mechanics, and cell phones weren’t around yet!
About 10 or 15 minutes later, a man who looked like a ‘hippie’ came down the driveway and asked if we needed help! Of course, we said yes, wondering how he could help. It turns out the man was the owner of the farm. He was also a mechanic! He fiddled around for what seemed like an hour and proclaimed that he figured out our problem. Our distributor cap had ‘burned up’(?) and was not allowing the spark plugs to ignite properly(?). It seemed plausible to me, but how were we going to get the car in good enough shape to continue our honeymoon?
God, in His mercy, has always looked out for me. The farmer/mechanic just happened to have a tune-up kit for my 1972 Pinto in his barn! He said he didn’t know where he got it, but we could have it. When I told him I didn’t know how to install it, he did the work for us, right there on the side of the road in his driveway! He said there was a lot more the car needed, but he was not equipped to rebuild the engine. He could get us on our way, though! After the job was done, I asked him if I could give him a “little something” for his help. His exact words, which I will never forget were, “It’s hard to turn down bread, man!” So we agreed on $20 (he felt sorry for us because it happened on our honeymoon), I paid him, and we continued on our ‘adventure’.
The incident caused us to worry whether we should go all the way to Portland, so we decided we would just go to the southern Oregon border, cut across to I5 and go home to see about getting the car fixed. From that honeymoon experience on though, we had enough of the Pinto. In early 1975 we had to have it junked and we bought our Chevy Monte Carlo, which was a great car for many years. In fact, we took a “2nd honeymoon” trip in the Monte Carlo a couple of years later, making it all the way up to Portland on our “covered bridge” adventure.
Comments
Post a Comment