Reading the A-Mail over the past few weeks brought back
fond memories of my first set of wheels, a 1955 Ford 4-door Fairlane, V-8, straight stick w/overdrive, light blue in
color. While a 4-door was not the coolest thing
in the world, it was mine! Up until this car, I had no
experience in driving a straight stick however a very good
friend of mine, the late Stan Bowen (AHS'63) taught me the
basic of coordinating clutch and shifting for me to get the
car home when my Dad took me to pick it up. I spent a
number of days terrorizing our Belvedere neighborhood and
our home street of Santa Barbara Drive with my practicing
the fine art of "clutch and shift" along with a few touches
of the brakes. The big day came when my parents finally
gave me permission to drive to school. I believe this was
my Junior year ('62) and the Avondale parking lot was
gravel, not paved. My greatest fear came at the end of the
day when class let out. At the time, the only pavement in
the parking lot was a pad where you transitioned from
gravel to parking exit to Clarendon Ave. Over the years of
cars spinning their wheels when leaving the lot created,
what I remember as, 2 craters just before the pavement. My
fear was that I would be stopped by Ms Kinney (can't
believe I remembered her name!!), the patrol lady who
controlled the traffic and students, just at the point of
the 2 craters. Fear realized!! A number of cars exited
but I was stopped just as the front wheels were on the
pavement, back tires in
the craters!! Now she signals me to pull out - it seemed
like an eternity as I sat there spinning my back tires,
throwing gravel on to whoever had the misfortune to be
behind me. I finally got up on the pavement and proceeded
to leave 2 black marks as I spun out!! I had visions of
never being allowed in the parking lot again after that
incident however the next day, I made sure that I had
plenty of room between me and the cars ahead/behind to not
get caught in the craters. I moved up from the '55 Ford to
my Dad's '60 Chevrolet Bel-Air however it did not take long
for me to realize that this was definitely a gas hog (even
at $.25 a gallon!!) so I moved to a '63 VW Bug which was
and still remains in my mind as one of the greatest cars I
have ever owned. Nights at the Glenwood Drive-in or Scott
Drive-in, sitting in the back seat (front seats pushed
forward),"watching" the movie ......what memories!! I had
reversed the wheel rims giving it a wide look and added
spun aluminum full wheel covers and the muffler was shot
giving it a great sound - man, what a car!!
Harry Evans
AHS '63
April 11, 2002