Me and my first car

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/06/2020 at 15:35 • Filed to: None

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My high schooler got out the box of family photos and has spent the last couple days going through it. This would have been taken in 1989 or 1990, when I was in grad school and my fiancée was in her last year of undergrad at JMU (that’s our dorm in the back) . The car was an 88 Fox GL wagon (4-speed) , which my dad bought for me and then I paid him back over the next couple of years. I   loved that car. I fit everything I owned into it for my move to Houston for grad school. Kept it for 13 years, put 175k miles on it, then replaced it with a 2001 Golf, which I put 215k miles on before a drunk totaled it. I miss that car just as much. 

Looking through all those old photos, I had forgotten how skinny we all used to be.....

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 15:47

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Ooo, I like that boxy VW

ttyymmnn > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 06/06/2020 at 15:53

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The two-door wagon is the perfect form factor, at least for no more than two people. With the back seat down, there was gobs of room in it.

Not my car, but you get the idea. 

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 15:57

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Thats basically my Mini but longer

Boxer_4 > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 16:13

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I actually saw one of these a few weeks ago on the highway - I honestly couldn’t believe it.

Jim Spanfeller > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 16:17

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Verkswergin! Noice.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 16:29

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I remember the fox, there is a reason they are no longer around. I should mention the red Datsun died an honorable death of rust.

ttyymmnn > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 06/06/2020 at 16:36

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Mine lived the majority of its life in TX, so there was ultimately very little rust. However, the TX sun did heath the dashboard up so much that all of the ducting warped and the AC didn’t blow right. 

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 06/06/2020 at 16:44

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I liked the clubman I used to have a lot for that reason.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > MiniGTI - now with XJ6 06/06/2020 at 16:46

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Unfortunately they didnt make a 1st gen Clubman :(

Stef Schrader > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:39

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NICE.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 06/06/2020 at 17:44

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Were it so, it would be a Midi, but it ain’t.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:44

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The older we get, the younger we were.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 06/06/2020 at 17:44

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Terminal tinworm.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:46

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I don’t think your car was ever this nice. The Brazilian sheet metal on yours would have completely dissolved if you were’nt in Texas. And there you have it: the upside of having lived in Texas.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/06/2020 at 17:52

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And thinner. I found some shots of you in your Wichita Falls days. Still sorry about the deviled eggs. 

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/06/2020 at 17:54

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It was bought used, but it was very nice in its youth. Like all VWs, the interior went to hell, but that engine just kept running. I couldn’t kill it, and not for lack of trying. 

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:55

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Do share! LOL

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:55

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Well, I must have forgiven you about the deviled eggs because I have no recollection of a deviled eggs-related disappointment.

Scan the good ones for me, por favor?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:57

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Also, I want to reproduce the truck decal from Shaffer Block that you sent me. I have Cousin Mark on the job helping me with that. Sentimental fool that he is, I am confident he’ll come through. At my request, Mark visited Uncle Harold with the picture from the Beacon to see if Harold could recognize any of the men, but he could not.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 17:58

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1.8L displacement, IIRC. ‘Twas a noble steed.

Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 18:50

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The Shorts, please tell me there were OP? I had some sweet corduroy OPs.

Also, the hair.  Looking back, the memories are great!  

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/06/2020 at 19:04

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We met for lunch, and we made some but forget to bring them. You were very disappointed.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/06/2020 at 19:05

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Wouldn’t win any races, but it had just enough pep to be interesting. 

ttyymmnn > Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped 06/06/2020 at 19:12

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I think I only owned one or two pairs of OPs back in the day. I wasn’t terribly trendy, and couldn’t afford them either. I found another picture of my and Mrs. Ttyymmnn’s first Thanksgiving dinner after we were married. We were in our first apartment in Houston, we were set up on our card table with folding chairs, and I was wearing a polo shirt and very short shorts. My son made a comment about it. But hey, it was 1990. It’s what it was.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/06/2020 at 19:18

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Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 19:38

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OMG, the ‘card tables’. The flimsy ass tab les that had the thinnest of legs.

ttyymmnn > Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped 06/06/2020 at 20:11

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Yup. We still have it 30 years later. But it’s in pretty bad shape. But when you are newlyweds on basically one income and paying tuition, you do what you can. Those were great times, by and large. 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/06/2020 at 21:19

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Okay, I’ll try to get mad at you again.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 06/06/2020 at 21:25

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i86hotdogs > ttyymmnn 06/07/2020 at 00:32

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‘87 Fleetwood Brougham

passenger door only opened from the inside, gas gauge didn’t work (filled up every 100 miles), radio and cassette player didn’t work, couldn’t lock the car without the alarm triggering on its own, sunroof leaked, drank oil as much as it drank gas, rear drums would lock on the most gentle brake pedal press.

I loved every second of that car. 

ttyymmnn > i86hotdogs 06/07/2020 at 00:40

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So Murica.

Awesome.

oldmxer > ttyymmnn 06/07/2020 at 04:30

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i never appreciate what i have until it’s gone

Taylor Martin > ttyymmnn 06/08/2020 at 12:57

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There’s something special about stuffing your wagon chalk full of junk and hauling it to wherever. I’ve been helping my dad move and the most fun I’ve had so far is playing trunk tetris and watching my rear suspension get closer and closer to the ground. In fact, I’m loading up for a trunk stuffed roadtrip this saturday the 13th , from MD to FL.

ttyymmnn > Taylor Martin 06/08/2020 at 13:02

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I consider myself to be rather good at trunk Tetris (love that term, btw), as well as loading a moving van with the least amount of empty airspace. I have found that I can very accurately look at something and know if or where it will fit. The trick on long family trips, though, is to get everything packed tightly but still maintain access to important items you might need while on the road. 

Taylor Martin > ttyymmnn 06/08/2020 at 13:10

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I was a smaller child, so I’d always have a cooler stuffed between my legs. Easily accessible. Incredibly uncomfortable. We’d bury our suitcases and leave whatever we needed in either the backseat with me or in the passenger’s seat with whoever sat there.

ttyymmnn > Taylor Martin 06/08/2020 at 13:14

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We are a family of 5, and have made many long trips, all across the country, in our Odyssey. We usually take out one of the center seats, and use the extra space for a cooler, boxes of food, books, etc. It’s been great having the space. When we found out 14 years ago that we were having twins (instead of having two kids, we had two more), I decided that there was no way I’d go on a long trip with three boys sitting shoulder to shoulder for 12 or more hours. And I didn’t want an SUV. That Oddy was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.