Me and Amos
There is just something about a guy's first car, that first sweet taste of freedom. Mine was a 1970 Dodge Polara just like the one in the picture above, except mine was ten years older with 102,000 miles on it. What a ride! I named my car Amos Sherman Hill - Amos because I like Bible names, and Sherman because it was a tank. It was huge, just two doors, but they were about six feet long. I could lay down in the trunk and not touch either side.I drove that old car another 90,000 miles. Off to college with all my stuff and back home every few weeks with a load of dirty laundry. Back and forth all summer long to the grocery warehouse where I worked to pay for college. And on the weekends Amos and I would head north from the campus to the little country church where folks first called me "pastor." I have lots of memories of hauling kids to camps and retreats, a youth trip to Colorado Springs, and summer weekends at the lake. Still our journeys continued.
I vacuumed him out and hosed him off before I picked up Suzanne for our first date. And Amos was absolutely spotless, waxed by hand and shining like a dime, complete with new seat covers, on our wedding day.
My dad, also a pastor, was concerned before we got married that Suz might not be aware of the financial realities of a minister's life. "Does she know that you are never going to make a lot of money? Does she understand that you are never going to live in the biggest house or drive the biggest car?" I had to take exception to that. "Dad, I already drive the biggest car."
That first car is like a long lost friend, but we'll never be together again. I loved ol' Amos. I wish I had him still. Have you got a story to tell, that first car, that first set of keys? Let's hear it.
Comments
You definetly hit a soft spot - my first car was a "66 Mustang Fastback, 4 barrell! Spanish Moss Green! What every 16 year old needs - and gets when her Dad longed for one himself but was and is too practical to acknowledge that. I happen to know you can get eight people in one of those - can't drive it anywhere, but the counting was fun! Rick, for some reason always wanted to take it on our dates, he had a Ford Fairlane.(sp?) I drove it for 6 years, and then my sister for 4 more. Dad sold it for more than he paid for it. We didn't have the money at the time to buy it from him. I've since found out it's sitting in a Doctor's garage in Joplin - going to look it up in a couple of months. Rick's offered to buy me a new one - but it's the only one I would ever want!
Amos wasn't the fastest car in the world. It was more like driving your family room. Thanks for sharing your stories and making lots of people jealous.