1957 Was A Very Good Year

Everyone remembers their first car, but some people had a more memorable vehicle than others. My first car was the extrememly memorable 1957 Pontiac Chieftain. Four doors, eight cylinders, three on the tree. The speedometer never worked, but I never got pulled over. In fact, the whole year or so I owned it, the only critical part that ever failed me was a fuel pump. I always had dreams of restoring it to it's original glory, but I never got around to it. I got it right before I turned 16, which would have been 1986. I paid $500 for it, from a friend of my fathers. Dad drove it home the night I paid for it, and he blew the original fan belt off of it. I sold it the next summer when I got a job working at Walt Disney World, and needed something that got a little better gas mileage. I wound up with a Mercury Comet, circa 1976. Not the same...

That's me to the right above. On the left is Darrin Burse, and in the center is his brother Jeff. This picture was taken one day after school. We're on the side of the road just down the street from the high school, looking at a dead duck on the side of the road. I'm not sure why...