The first car I ever owned was a very used and old 1969 Ford Fairlane. I bought it for $700 the same year I read The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. I liked the vivid scenes of the protagonist driving in picturesque New Orleans (at least that's how I remember it). Of course every young man wants to drive his own dream machine. Sometimes your finances make you downsize your dream as was the case for me.

My '69 Fairlane had a 250-cubic inch, six banger engine. Not exactly a muscle car but it did get pretty decent gas mileage. Again, my lean wallet came into play. Mostly I wanted it to get to and from college with miminal breakdowns. The Fairlane's gears froze up once and that ran me a hefty bill to get fixed.

I'd also read On the Road by Jack Kerouac and criss-crossing the nation sounded cool to me. However, no way did I trust the Fairlane to take me all those miles, and I never did get on the road. The Fairlane only stuck around a couple of years. I don't have a memory of what became of it. I probably traded it in toward the cost of a newer, more reliable ride. Was it love? A little. Was it hate? A little more, perhaps.