Published: June 21, 2009 12:23 am      

WOLCOTT: Cars were more under control in my Father’s Day

Between the movie “Gran Torino” last weekend and today’s Miller Hose Father’s Day Car Show, I got to thinking about all the cars I’ve owned.

Dad drove a 1939 Ford, black of course, during World War II. Folks couldn’t get a new car during the rationing, but dad was the first person on Westcott Street to buy a post war car. The 1947 Plymouth pearl colored and looked like nothing else on the road.

Dad would pack all eight of us in that car and drive the country roads to his farm homestead in Wyoming County. When he reached 50 mph, the green lights on the dash would begin to turn red. The faster dad drove, the brighter the red. He gave us a beet red thrill for a few seconds.

I learned to drive on a 1952 Ford with a stick shift and then got to drive my brother’s hand-me-down 1956 Ford when I got my license. After the Air Force, I got my own first car, a two-tone green 1959 Ford with a straight six. It was for $200 “as is” and got me to college and back. It also got me to the flour mill in the summer. My “as is” car was never in trouble.

However, I was talked into buying a 1964 Ford Galaxy. It was mint green and weighed more than 4,000 pounds. It didn’t have power steering, and I could handle that, but the longer, lower, wider car got about 10 miles per gallon. That bothered the college student, even if gas was just 25 cents a gallon.

For some reason, I made my first new car a white 1967 Buick Special — stick shift. It took me to my first career job at the Niagara Falls Gazette, but it was nothing special. I remember racing up the North Grand Island Bridge against the Buffalo Bison’s 19-year-old catcher Johnny Bench who was in a red Ford with Len Boehmer, a veteran infielder who was demoted by the Cincinnati Reds. The cub sports writer backed off on the way to Hyde Park Stadium.

In 1970, I got my favorite car, a Gran Torino. It wasn’t like Clint Eastwood’s 1972 Gran Torino. My green machine was better. The 1970 model was “shaped by the wind” and was named the Motor Trend Car of the Year. It made my day, Clint, every day.

I put 50,000 miles on it in two years and, because I was young and dumb, I traded it in on a 1972 Mercury Montego. The gold car was the same size as the green Gran Torino and it had the same engine. But the Montego was a pig. It sounded like a 4-cylinder and had the pickup of a wheelbarrow. In 1972, cars were fashioned with a bunch of baloney hoses to cut down on emissions. Look under the hood and you could hardly find the alternator or spark plugs.

Miles per gallon dropped and we had to use more gas. How the new government regulations limited pollution, I could never figure out.

After another 50,000 miles, I opted for a 1974 Plymouth Satellite — green. It was a nice car, but you’ll probably never see anyone showing a green 1974 Plymouth Satellite at a car show. Maybe so.

I got married in 1976, the 200th anniversary of our Independence, and bought a red, white, and blue Buick Regal. I predicted I would never be able to afford a new car again, and was right. The Regal survived baby girl in 1978 and a baby boy in 1980. But when Heather was born in 1985, the car surrendered. While mom and baby were in the hospital, dad didn’t want me nursing the Buick and decided to sell his 1979 Chevy Caprice. It was big and green and didn’t give out until 1990.

That’s when I bought a blue 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. I had high hopes for it, but the Olds was the worst purchase of anything I ever made. Trouble is, I was stuck with it for about six years.

En route, I changed mechanics, and the Pine Avenue dealer found a 1989 Ford Crown Victoria with about 70,000 miles on it. It was roomy, gave a great ride and wasn’t bad in MPG. I pushed that car to the 200,000-mile mark before I found a 1995 Mercury Gran Marquis at Gasport Motors with about 70,000 miles. Big Blue, with a touch of sparkling purple metallic, went over 200,000 miles.

My new car is a silver 2004 Chevy Impala, enlivened by a red pinstripe, but otherwise just good transportation. I miss the two-tones, metallic and personality of the cars from the 1970 Gran Torino and before. Computer controlled cars are better equipped now, but I liked the cars that made me feel a bit of control.

Give me wing windows, hand throttles, hand chokes, an alternator I can replace and key entry on the passenger side. You can see those things at the Father’s Day Car Show in Newfane.

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott

at 439-9222, ext. 6246.