By Joel Vernier
I was deeply into REM sleep and, of course, dreaming.
I dreamed of my first car. Everyone remembers their first vehicle. I saved for 2 years to be able to buy my first set of wheels! It was ancient, a 1960 Plymouth Belvedere with 68,000 miles on it. It was glorious! It had two big headlights and looked like it was not happy with whoever looked at it. It also sported two extra-large fins off the back, giving it a “Nautilus” effect.
My Plymouth cost me $65.00 and included a quarter tank of gas. It was the real deal, all heavy steel and weighed 3395 lbs. The gas tank held over 20 gallons and would get 10-12 miles per gallon. Of course, gas at that time cost under a quarter per gallon.
During the “gas wars,” it went as low as 16.9 cents a gallon. The tires were almost bald, but due to the vehicle’s weight, it didn’t matter. It even went through the snow with ease. It was rear-wheel drive and did not have power steering. No air-conditioning, but it had the little windows on the front windows that were amazing. They were called quarter windows or commonly called vent windows.
The last year and model they made was 1996 on the Ford F150 and Bronco. Equipped with the window vent, you really did not need air-conditioning. That may be why the auto companies discontinued them.
I loved cruising up Woodward Avenue in my Plymouth Belvedere!
When I was in high school, we fit a little over 20 teenagers into the car. We took a drive to consummate the record!
Thankfully we did not get pulled over by the police that night. We drove out to the Catholic Church in Bloomfield Hills called “Kirk In the Hills.” We crawled, fell, tripped, and rolled out of the car.
It was a July night, very warm and humid, and the wind was still. A perfect night to visit the church. The goal was to respectfully walk around the church, which seemed medieval, ghostly, scary, and so much fun. We were respectful of the church property and no littering. Still, we did scream very loud when we turned the corner, and one of the guys went around the other way to scream at us as we took our spooky journey.
My daughter commented to me as I was blessed to go into remission from leukemia, “Dad, that’s so awesome! You still have 8 lives left!” I stated back, “Nope! Remember, I was a teenager once; I’m down to 3 lives out of 9!”
One of the fun things my friends and I would do in the winter was to go up to Oakland Mall in Troy, Michigan, and literally drive through the snowbanks left from plowing. My car was so solid that it would plow through the 4-5 m ft tall banks with no problem!
Taking to the limits, as all teenagers do, I took on a 6-foot snowbank, and instead of plowing through it, my Belvedere climbed it. Up and up we went, and just as I felt we were going down the other side, my car teeter tottered and balanced perfectly on top of the snowbank.
My buddies tried to push it off, but it would not budge. It cost me $25 for a tow truck to pull it down. Thankfully no police involvement, and my Dad never found out about the adventure! In fact, I never received a single ticket with my Plymouth.
As I began to wake up from my nap, I was still mentally in my teenage mode. I began to think about driving my car to the closest fast-food place to order a burger, fries, coke, and a chocolate milkshake. Once fully awake, I went to the kitchen and ate a salad. In my next dream,
I hope I focus on my Ford window van nicknamed the “Magic Bus!”
