Getting my driver’s license was a huge deal. All of that freedom, all of that “I can just leave the house when I want?”-ness of it had pent up inside me for years. I remember distinctly the very first time I drove on my own: I borrowed my mom’s car and drove to the Best Buy in Downers Grove, Illinois, to pick up a special order of R.E.M. Succumbs on VHS. (That tells you a lot about me, right there.) I pleaded with my mom to take that 20+ mile drive and bring my best friend Greg along, and she somehow agreed.
But my first car was something my parents and I found in the local newspaper. An older person was selling a used 2-door 1988 Dodge Shadow. It claimed it was in good condition, and the price was right. I had saved up money for it, but my parents also were willing to chip in a good amount. I remember at that point just thinking, “So long as my dad thinks the car is in good shape, I’m getting that car.” Being able to drive was essential for me, and since my dad had been a mechanic in his teens and 20s, I trusted him fully.
The car got a pretty clean bill of health. The head had a small crack, so I was told not to really take it on the highway nor go over around 60 with it. The interior – red cloth! – was in good condition. The A/C was broken, likely out of refrigerant, so summers would be kind of awful. But it ran, it was cheap, and it was a great first car.
The first thing I purchased for the car was, naturally, a CD player. It had a stock radio – AM/FM only, no cassette even! – and in-car CD players were still relatively new and relatively crappy back then. I spent a day installing a Sony single-DIN, faceplate-removable stereo with my dad. I remember distinctly that when the car went over any bump, the player would skip – and scratch the disc. It was horrible and great.
My first trip in the car? The night after we bought it, I asked my parents if I could drive to Taco Bell. (Teenagers, right?) They reluctantly agreed. I remember the excitement of getting to drive in my car, to get food for myself, to enjoy myself – that independence was incredible. And so I drove the short mile or two to Taco Bell, seeing cars flashing their lights at me, not realizing I was driving without my headlights on at all. (I remember thinking, “Wow, night driving is really hard – it’s impossible to see anything!”)
I also remember the first time I drove my car to high school. Again, I felt amazing. I was coming up on my school’s parking lot, and signaled to make a right turn into the lot. A car from the other direction came up and gave me the wave to go ahead… and I gave him the wave at the same time. We misunderstood each other, and yes, we ended up going at the same time. He took out my front wheel completely. I was scared and worried and so disappointed. As I sat in the back of a police car, talking with them about the accident, I saw other students walk by, see me in the back seat, and laugh. Assholes.
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The Shadow died a sad death. Despite the warnings from my parents, I still drove the car on the highway. Once I took it out to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, and noticed a bit of smoke emanating from the hood while I was in a drive-thru. I didn’t think much of it. But when I started driving the car back home, the temperature gauge went all the way to “H” – and the smoke increased. I pulled off to a nearby Wal-Mart and, thankfully, had change to call my parents. They were more than a little annoyed, to say the least, but after I bought some antifreeze, I waited for them to arrive. That half hour was the longest half hour ever. My parents didn’t flip, not fully, but they were quite pissed. My dad looked at the car and sure enough, the entire head had cracked. We caravanned back home, with my Shadow not being able to go over 25.
Repairing the car would cost more than the car was worth, as you can imagine. After a short while, I traded it in – somehow – for a 95 Dodge Neon, which would become the first car I truly loved.
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I write this now, recalling stuff that happened over 25 years ago, without a car that I call my own. My wife and I still have a car, but due to the coronavirus it’s just not being used much. We sold my car just before all of the lockdowns, and are waiting to see what happens next.