Although my mother stands at 6 feet tall, Grandma was a tiny person, partially due to the osteoporosis that bent her spine over. As a result, her driving style involved a "through the steering wheel" approach that couldn't have been either safe or effective. As some point, grandma lost her ability to drive at all. That was unfortunate for my grandparents. Just as grandma had a sound mind but failing body, grandpa had a strong body but failing mind that left him in the care of Grandma when it came to going places. When the two of them finally made the transition into a nursing home, the question came up about what to do with their car. I have no pictures of this car, and at the time I thought little about it. I was into spaceships and jet fighters and WWII tanks and everything else an primary school kid would like. But not cars.Not that I was car-stupid. I was savvy enough to see that the Porsche 914 parked across from my K-8 school was something special (because it was a Porsche and my friends talked about it).
Not that I didn't notice cars, either. I thought my fifth grade teacher's Chevy "Berlinetta" Camaro was pretty cool looking. (Hats off to Mrs. J., who had opted for something more sporty than what filled the rest of the faculty parking lot. In retrospect, I wonder what she experienced with that car in light of the power, fuel-efficiency, and build-quality problems associated with GM sports cars of those years.)
Anyway, as we got ready to move Grandma and Grandpa into a nursing home, I was allowed to "buy" Grandma's car. For $250.00. This price was interestingly the EXACT amount of my savings account, amassed from everything I had acquired up to that point in my life: writing contest winnings, gifts, and earnings from summers picking strawberries and doing whatever you can to make money when you're a kid.
It was a 1966 Dodge Dart GT two-door, and it wasn't in the best shape. Grandma was a heavy smoker, so the yellow interior was probably originally white. Also, the exterior, which I think was originally gold, had a layer or two of mold that had grown as the car sat for eleven years uncovered in the weather of the Pacific Northwest.
In 1987, when we (Grandma had passed and we moved Grandpa with us) were getting ready to move to a new city, we struggled with what to do with the car. By that point was residing in my parent's barn gathering a solid layer of barn-swallow droppings. I mentioned it one day to my friend Ryan while playing over at his house. The topic caught the ear of his older brother, Mike, who was turning sixteen around that time. When I told him how much I paid for the car, he said "Heck, I'd give you $250.00 for that car right now!" Not knowing that a thirteen-year-old isn't in a position to negotiate such a sale, I said, "Sold!" ($250.00 seemed like a lot, and it meant I'd have all my savings back in place of a non-running, bird-poop-covered car I wasn't old enough to drive.) Mike bought the car and he and his dad did a great job fixing it up. They painted it black and put in a new engine at some point. I'm glad it went to a good home.It wasn't until later in life that I began to appreciate that Grandma's car (possibly selected by Grandpa) was pretty cool. The print ads alone are compelling...
I had no idea that there was any "Dodge Rebellion" or that it featured hip models wearing color-matched outfits complete with boots and a cartoonish bomb.
Foam-padded bucket seats! Wall-to-wall carpets! Size, style, AND spunk! Apparently, I was (at one time) the owner of a "man-sized Dodge Dart." What I do know is that the Dart GT that Grandma had was, in retrospect, a pretty great car. It featured the "Slant Six" engine, which was an innovative and successful design.
Today, there few of this car around, as the 1966 design lasted only that year. I've found a few online, but haven't seen one in person in years.
So, here's to Grandma's car. It turned out to be the first in a long line of cars owned by me. And the most I got to drive it was down the lane into the barn!
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