have owned a lot of automobiles. Why? Well, my Dad always liked a new car and I guess it rubbed off. Another reason was at first, I couldn’t afford a new car, so I owned a series of used cars. Unfortunately, my mechanical abilities are limited and cars didn’t last long. I have included a list of those I owned and pictures where available. In some cases, I didn’t have a picture of my own and have borrowed from the web. I have tried to match colors and styles where possible.

Before, my marriage, I never owned a car. In high school, I drove my Dad’s car, a pink and white 1955 Ford Crown Victoria. What a bomb! This was a true blue girl magnet with a pink and white leather interior. This has become one of America’s classic cars and brings a good price if one can be found.

The very first vehicle I owned was a Cushman Eagle Motor Scooter. It looked good, but the head was warped and I had to replace the head gasket twice a week at 20 cents per gasket. The front fork was loose when I bought it and on the way home, it fell off and I went head first over the handlebars doing about forty mph. Fortunately it was on a curve and I was thrown into the grass. Sore for a couple of days, but I never told anyone. I was afraid that Dad would not let me ride it.

My first car that I owned was a 1949 Plymouth Coupe. I bought it in Quantico, Virginia for $50 and drove it several months and sold it for scrap for $30 in Virginia. It had no floorboard, and we built a half-floor out of sheet metal covered with an Army blanket. We picked up a sailor hitchhiking in Breezewood, PA. We smelled something burning and it was his shoes on the muffler. He was trying to stay warm! We also had the brakes fail coming down 5-mile Mountain in West Virginia – hit the bottom and coasted two miles into a town where we let the brakes cool.

After scrapping the Plymouth, I purchased a 1952 Ford. This was a great little car, with a big V8 and could really move up the mountains of Tennessee. Unfortunately, on a road in Kentucky, an old geezer driving a station wagon with about 10 kids ran us off the road, and I slid into a sign, and messed up the rear end, bending the bumper out straight. I ended up trading it for a…

1955 Ford Sunliner Convertible in Ohio. This was a great little car. We drove this car for awhile and I decided to sell it. I put an ad in the paper and a man came up and was interested. He asked if he could drive it around the block. He never came back. I went to the police and they said it was a civil matter. Of course, since a contract had not been agreed on, this wasn’t so. However, they refused to do anything and said I would find it in the desert, stripped.

 Needing a car, we financed a 1960 Ford Falcon. At this time, we were experiencing financial problems and couldn’t keep up the payments, so we let it go back to the finance company.

I then bought a 1956 Chrysler. Then the strangest thing happened. About 10 months later, the guy shows up with the money for the Ford. The car had been customized. He gave me a song and dance story about a sick grandmother in Los Angeles. Said he had to leave in a hurry. I took the money and gave him the title.

We then received orders to go to England, so I sold the Chrysler in Washington DC. In England, we purchased a new Ford Anglia. I didn’t have it very long.  I made a U-turn and came up the wrong side of the street and caused a three-car collision. The other two cars were a new Vauxhall from the Chrysler showroom and another Anglia being driven by my Driver’s Education Instructor, a British Bobby.

How embarrassing! I fought with my insurance company and finally after five months, got it repaired. It was a right-hand drive, and before I came back to the states, I traded it straight-across for a left-hand drive Anglia. Notice the right-hand drive in the picture.

I then traded the Anglia for a 1969 Chevy Nova. It was a pretty car. However, it led a rough life. I left the Air Force for eight months in 1969 and after a period of unemployment, decided that the Air Force was the better life. I received orders to Mountain Home, Idaho, but had to spend several months in Biloxi, MS retraining. While there, we were hit with a hurricane, which scoured the paint off the car and glazed the windshield. I couldn’t get it fixed in Mississippi, because car repair shops were still backed up from Hurricane Camille. I stuck in a sheet of Plexiglas for a windshield and drove to Idaho, complete with a one year old and a brand new baby girl.

In Idaho, we had the Nova painted, the windshield replaced and eventually traded it for a new 1972 Dodge Colt Station Wagon (This was the American version of the Mitsubishi Eclipse.) The colt was taken back to Ohio, while I was in Thailand. Mary had an accident, and ran off a mountain road in Tennessee. It was repaired and we kept it while in Indiana at Grissom AFB. Following Grissom, I was assigned to the ROTC detachment at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.

We kept the Colt and bought a second vehicle, a Chevy S10 pickup truck from a church member, Mike Hamblin. 
Eventually, I junked the Colt.

 We traded the Chevy S10 for a 1975 Ford F150 Super Cab. We drove the Ford F150 to Hill AFB, Utah, and after I retired from the Air Force in 1980, returned to Ohio, where I traded it for…

A 1979 Buick Century Station Wagon. This car blew an engine near Middletown, Ohio. I had it towed back to Galloway, Ohio where we lived, and traded it at Trader Dad’s Westside Dodge for…

A 1982 Dodge Ram Van.

I picked up for a second car, a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle from our next door neighbor, Rick, and after a few years, resold it to him. The color was gold and it was the coldest car I have ever driven in the wintertime.

We then bought a new 1985 Mercury Topaz. The dealer sold the contract and the replacement contract interest rate was so outrageous, that we…

 then bought, a 1987 Ford Escort. We kept it for several years before selling it.

We also bought a 1992 Ford Escort.  We traded it for a…

1993 Ford Taurus.

We traded the 1993 Taurus for a new 1996 Ford Taurus, which we gave to our daughter Cynthia in 2005.

We purchased a new 1997 Ford Crown Victoria.  A police department had ordered three of this vehicle and failed a bond levy and couldn’t take possession.  I made a cash offer several thousand below list price.  It was designed as a police car and had an Intercepter engine.  I had the spotlight and police antenna removed.

We then traded the 97 Crown for a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria, which was traded for a …

2012 Ford Escape which was then traded for a…

2015 Ford Escape which was then traded for a…

1917 Ford Escape Titanium