My Auto Biography - A Vehicular History

During this pandemic-induced quiet time I have been viewing old photos and digital images, reminiscing about the roads I have travelled both literally and figuratively.  While the vehicles a person drives isn’t really that important in the grand scheme of things, especially if you aren’t really a “go faster grease monkey” as we used to say, the perspective during ownership can have an impact on your personality.

In a previous blog entry, I mentioned that I got a job when I was 15 years old as a broiler cook at Buckaroo Steak Ranch which was about 5 miles from my house.  Without a driver’s license or transportation, I was relegated to hitchhiking to work either from home or from High School each day that I worked.  While not a full-time job, I still worked 4 or 5 nights a week, usually from 4 to 10 pm.  I never participated in school activities.  I didn’t go to football games or prom, and I didn’t date a pom- pom girl.

I changed jobs after about a year, moving on to Bonanza Sirloin Pit, which was a little closer to my house but much farther away from school, and more difficult to hitchhike to each afternoon.

At the new hourly rate of $1.10 per hour buying a car would be out of the question but I had passed by Florissant Honda on foot many times and had my eye on the Honda Super 90, which was perfect for my small 95 pound frame.  The price was $325.00 plus tax.

I had about $50 saved and asked my Dad to spot me the rest.  Dad said he never did business with relatives but this one time only he would make an exception if I paid him back within a year and agreed to add 5% simple interest.  Thanks Dad.

The purchase was made, my hitchhiking days were over and I was now MO bile.  That was a GREAT bike; perfect for zipping around with friends on the back or popping wheelies through Steak n’ Shake to impress…. nobody, really.

When I ran away from home at the age of 17 I rode that bike from St. Louis to New Orleans on the highway in 22 hours.  Top speed was about 50 mph but if I got behind an 18 wheeler I could draft along for about a half mile at 65.  The bike served me well in New Orleans too, taking me from the house I stayed in to school in the morning and then to work at another Bonanza Sirloin Pit in Metairie in the evening.

Winter in Missouri is not a pleasant experience so after returning home from my New Orleans experience in December of 1970 I traded the bike for my first car, a 1957 Chevy Station Wagon.  I also needed a car so that I could date a little blond waitress at my new job, Mr. Steak, where I was Assistant Manager and Head Cook.

It was a really good thing I bought a car and dumped the bike because by the end of January I would need a place to sleep.  I tested Dad’s authority and he threw me out of the house.  Living in the car would be an interesting experience, especially when overnight temps dropped below freezing and it was necessary to fire up the engine to get some heat.  That would be about 3 times every night.  Eventually a friends’ parents let me move in with them for the remainder of my senior year.

Warm weather and graduation brought on what I used to call “bike fever”.  I really wanted to take another trip to New Orleans on a motorcycle so the older brother of the friend I was living with offered to trade his Honda 305 Scrambler to me for my 57 Chevy.  The value was about the same so we did the deal and I took off for a 2 week vacation back to NOLA.

Vacation was a blast but all good things come to an end and it was back to work.   The job at Mr. Steak in Florissant ended abruptly so I found a new job at another Mr. Steak that opened up in Ferguson.  I left that job after about 5 months to go in the Army but decided, at the last minute, not to go.  I had enrolled at junior college and started classes and changed jobs again; this time working as a car hop at a Steak n’ Shake… in winter… outside… that was not very smart, but I made good money, mostly in tips.  The Army called me again and this time I enlisted and was inducted in January, right after the new year began.

Once training was completed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and Fort Gordon, Georgia I was stationed at Fort Benning as a MP.  After a while I finagled a job in the MP Investigations Section and got to live off post so I purchased a used Yamaha 360 Enduro just to get me from place to place and also to go off road a bit.  This bike had so much torque we used to say it could climb trees.

Dirt bikes are lots of fun but not a very versatile form of transportation so eventually I bought my first brand new car, a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle for $3,200.00.  It was a great little car.  Small groups of us would take trips south to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida and we made 2 trips to New Orleans during the year I owned it.

After 16 months at Fort Benning it was time to move on.  A female friend who worked in the Overseas Levy Board worked her magic and soon I got orders for Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  For the first few months I was locked away in the center of the island with no new friends and no way to escape to the beach.  I had sold the VW to another GI who took over payments but didn’t know how long I would be on the island so I decided to buy another motorcycle and settled on a Honda 125 dirt bike that was street legal.

This was a great little bike that would take me and rider anywhere on the island and we spent many days at the beach and many nights in Waikiki.  It didn’t go very fast but it was fun to drive on and off road.  I ended up selling it just before I was discharged from the service in mid-December of 1974.

Back in the real world of Florissant, Missouri I bought my first Ford, a Galaxie with a good body but a sketchy engine.  Gas mileage sucked and it sputtered a bit but what do you expect for $500.00.  It got me to my new job at Steak & Ale where I was a bartender and waiter for about 4 months, but then it died on the highway one night and I ended up abandoning it. 

Spring was in the air and bike fever was back.  I had always wanted a big bike so I bought a brand new 650 Yamaha street machine.  I thought it to be just one step below a Harley but was much less expensive.  This would be the biggest bike I ever owned and it became my primary form of transportation for a while after the Galaxie died.

I’m not exactly sure when I bought my favorite “Muscle Car”, but the 1968 Dodge Charger was IT.  At this point it was only about 12 years old so, while past its prime, it was not quite yet a classic.  I was working at the time, as the Head Bartender at a Disco called “Something Else,” in Florissant.  This was the first disco in the area and was touted as “St. Louis’ Only Honest-To-Goodness Dazzling Discotheque”.  Chicks dug it… :)

One night after work we had a little party in the club and were drinking quite heavily.  The party was to continue at someone’s house, even though it was now after 3 am, and we left the building, travelling north on Lindbergh, one of the main drags.  I was into Chivas Regal at the time and I left with a tall glass on Scotch and water on ice…one for the road.  I’m sitting at a stop light that was red and look up into my rear view mirror just in time to see one of the other workers from the bar barreling toward me at a high rate of speed.  I had just enough time to duck down before impact.  He must have been doing about 50 and I was at a complete stop.  My head hit the head rest saving me from severe whiplash and the glass of Scotch hit the back window.  The whole back end was accordion-ed and my seat broke free of its bolts.  There were no seat belts back then.  I had to climb out the window to escape.  The other driver had damage to his face; a broken nose, and his car was totaled as well.  The Florissant police arrived, took a report and left after calling for tow trucks.  No ticket for the driver who caused the accident and no breath-a-lizer tests for either of us.  He had no insurance and we settled personally for $900 cash, what I had paid for the car and with that I bought my next car, a 1968 Chevelle SS.

The Chevelle was a good car.  Not as cool as the Charger but it was still no slouch.  I kept that car through my disco years and into the time where I got a real job, working at the Ford Motor Company plant in Hazelwood, making more money than I had ever made in my life.  But I hated that job and, after 9 months I decided to quit, leave Missouri, and move to New Orleans.  The plan was to go back to school for Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism and change the direction of my life.

I sold the car and bought my next motorcycle, one of Honda’s first medium sized four cylinder bikes, the Honda CB 400 street bike.  With a rented truck, my new bike and all my worldly goods I loaded up and made the 750 mile trip to Nawlins. 

The bike served me well in the urban environment with the moderate climate.  Living in rental houses uptown however proved problematic with no place to park the bike off the street.  I would chain it to a pillar in front of one of the houses and twice I came out to go to work at the New Orleans Hilton Hotel and found that the handle bars had been stolen. Who steals handle bars?

I dropped it once on St. Charles when I got stuck in the street car tracks and another time a pickup truck pulled out in front of me then stopped.  Luckily I just glanced off the front fender of the truck, veered onto the median and was thrown onto the grass, scraping my elbows.  My right foot was broken and the bike had some damage but it could have been a lot worse.

After a few years in management at the Hilton I was making enough money to buy a new car.  During one of the Mardi Gras parades I saw a small fleet of a new model in 1980 that was being introduced by Dodge called the Mirada and fell in love with the design.  It was a heavy car for a two door coupe but had plush velvety interior and oozed comfort, in my mind.

I held onto that car for a long time.  I left New Orleans after five years at the Hilton and moved to Norfolk, Virginia where I assumed a new role as Food & Beverage Director of a small renovated hotel called the Madison.  I made the drive to Virginia in the late winter, just after Mardi Gras and settled into a whole new environment.

After a year and half I was on the move again, this time to Austin, Texas to be the Food & Beverage Director of a very unique hotel called the Driskill.  I was on the move again after another year and half; back to the east coast to work at a franchise Hilton hotel in Annapolis, Maryland.  I put a lot of miles on that car and it served me well.

The job in Annapolis lasted another year and a half until I heard that a new corporate Hilton Hotel was opening in Greenbelt, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC.  I applied for the Banquet Manager position and got the job.  One night I was leaving a bar after Happy Hour and found that someone had smashed their car into the driver side of my Mirada crushing it and making it impossible to open the door.  The perpetrator and his/her vehicle were nowhere to be found.  

With a check from the insurance company and a damaged trade-in I went looking to buy a new car and found a totally redesigned 1987 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe, that I thought was pretty cool and, with a manual transmission and few options, a reasonable price.  The stick-shift was great at first but it grew old after a while and I wished I had paid a little more for an automatic.

After three years at the Greenbelt Hilton the ownership cancelled the contract with Hilton and the hotel became a Marriott.  I moved on to the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, a fairly long drive from my townhouse in Bowie, Maryland but it was a great opportunity.

Three years, a marriage, a baby and two beagles later I was offered an opportunity to move to Orlando and open an brand new Hyatt Hotel inside the terminal of the airport.  My wife had a car from before we were married, an Accura Integra so we loaded up both cars, put a dog in each one and made the trip south the Florida.

Things were going so well, or so I thought, until the separation and divorce.  Most of my cars up to this point were chosen based on my perception of their style.  I fashioned myself as a non-conformist and my cars represented me well.  Now I had a child that I would see for only a portion of the week and needed more of a family sedan with four doors and a child safety seat so I went totally conservative and bought a 1995 Honda Accord.  It was probably the most boring car I will ever own, but it performed well and served its purpose.

Time flew by as Grace grew up and I met my new bride, Jane.  We settled in after a three year courtship and eventual marriage and it was time for a new car.  I stayed at the Hyatt Orlando Airport for 13 years and during that time moved up to my first SUV.  My father had retired from Ford and still had the employee benefit for buying new cars called the Z plan.  Other family members had taken advantage of the plan over the years but, as a “non-conformist” I avoided it.  It was time to give in a little and enjoy the benefit.  The 2000 Ford Explorer, Eddie Bauer Edition had my name on it as soon as I saw it.  With leather interior, luggage rack, tow package, upgraded stereo system and a deep discounted price I just couldn’t resist.  Jane and I drove that car for 10 years and then gave it to Grace who drove it for another 5 years. What a great car for road trips!  Not so much for gas mileage, however.

The Explorer became Jane’s primary vehicle when I purchased the 2003 Jeep Liberty.  I was promoted from the Hyatt Orlando Airport to the Hyatt Grand Cypress in 2004, which was farther from home.  Jane was working at the Peabody Hotel near the convention center.  The neighbor across the street had a Liberty and convinced me to take a look.  This was 2004 but the dealer had one of the 2003 models left on the lot.  It was the top end with all the bells and whistles and a deep discount to clear it out of the inventory, so I bought it.  I held onto this car for 10 years and gave it to Grace too, after the Explorer was damaged in an accident.

In 2009 I was convince to take a promotion and move to Chicago to work at Hyatt’s largest flagship hotel on Wacker Drive.  The beagles were long gone but were replaced by two yellow Labradors, Sunnie and Spookie.  We could only take one with us so Spooky went to live with Jane’s brother on his 20 acre farm in Aiken, South Carolina.  I loaded up the Explorer and made the initial move on my own.  I went back for Jane and Sunnie a few months later, driving the Jeep for the final trip.

We still needed two cars in Chicago with jobs in different parts of the city.  I was downtown and Jane was a Meeting Planner, working in the suburbs.  The Explorer was now beginning to show a lot of wear so we went looking at Fords again and found a nice 2011 Escape, purchasing it on the Z-Plan again.  Rather than trade in the Explorer we gifted it to Grace who drove it all through college back in Orlando.

After five long years in Chicago and some personal medical issues for Jane, we realized that we wanted to go back to Orlando where our friends and family were.  Both of us found really good jobs; Jane to the Hyatt Orlando which had been the Peabody hotel, and I left Hyatt to work at the Omni ChampionsGate.  Again we packed up our cars and made the drive for new opportunities.

Now the Jeep was showing some wear after 11 years so Grace got another free car and it was time to take a look at another Ford product.  I really liked the 2010 Lincoln MKX but in 2013 they changed the grill and I wasn’t fond of the new look.  The Ford version of that model in 2015 was the Edge.  As I drove up the hill to the dealer I saw my new car on display in front of the building.  While I did look at a few others I came back to this one.  It was the top of the line, the last 2014 on the lot, and with the Z-Plan it a very good deal.  But the gas mileage sucks.

You will note that I keep my cars for a long time.  I prefer not to have a car payment for long stretches, or at all, if possible.  I can get another 4 or 5 years out of my Ford Edge.  The Escape only has about 2 more years’ life before it’s put out to pasture.  At my age I may have two more cars in my future before Jane takes my keys away.  I may not be moving around the country much as time goes by so what I drive will probably not have as much meaning or be as important as I thought it was in the past.

I know it may seem a bit superficial to dwell on the “stuff” you own throughout your life but life is made up of memories and many of mine include how I was transported from place to place.