I was still working at NASA, driving over 100 miles a day and I think it was early summer 1965 when I got this idea that I could get a sports car to drive to work. Eva and I had just moved into a new two-bedroom apartment. We had bought some new furniture and all of that overtime was allowing us to buy some things we needed. We hardly ever saw each other due to me working 7-days a week for long periods, and I think spending money was new for both of us. Eva was working at Gulf Oil and a co-worker of hers wanted to buy the car I had been driving for work.
That was at a time when a lot of songs were about cars and a lot of European sports cars were being shipped to the USA because guys that had served in the military in Europe were buying them and bringing them home with them. I rationalized that I had traded my Ford with the big engine for a compact car with a 6-cylinder engine, so a British sports car with a small engine would make sense. Eva had not reached the point of questioning my decisions, so I will blame her for that brilliant idea.
I found a red 1960 Austin Healey Sprite that I thought would be great. It needed a few things, but I knew a lot about cars so no big deal. I bought it and paid cash. It needed a new muffler, then I found out there was only one foreign car dealer that could get me the part. It needed new windshield blades, you guessed it, and the blades had to be ordered too. I did find a place to get new tires, they were a little higher than I thought they should be for a little car. I noticed the clutch was having a problem when shifting gears and that is when I discovered it had a hydraulic clutch and used the fluid from the brake master cylinder, so the brakes did not work well either. I filled the master cylinder up and that worked, for a while. I discovered the leak was where the line was connected to the clutch. Someone had messed up the flare and took me most of a Saturday to get it off, have it fixed, and then reinstall it. Then I discovered that that engine had to use premium gas, but the gas tank only held 7 gallons, not 2 ounces more. My Uncle Casey ordered me a new top for it and it worked perfectly, but the lift-out windows did not make much difference if they were in or not, the road noise and the ride were like riding in a utility trailer. Driving at 50 seemed like on a skateboard at 50.
Not long after buying that car, we signed a contract to build our first house so the upgrades on the red sports car got drug out over a much longer period than originally planned. We moved into our house on Christmas Eve 1965 and I had not driven it to work a single time at that point. In June 1966 I went to work for Texaco downtown to reduce my daily driving. When I worked days, Eva and I would ride together in the other car. When I worked nights, I was afraid that it would get stolen because there was no way to lock the car. So Eva would drive it to the bus stop and catch a bus to go to work downtown.
A short time later we found out that we were going to have our first child. As a recap, I had not driven that red sports car to work a single time and Eva had mentioned that a time or two. So I knew I had to sell that red sports car that I had worked on and spent more than I had originally paid when I bought it. I ran an ad in the paper and had made an appointment with a college kid and his Dad to come and look at it in the afternoon. I was working nights that week. When I got up, I was going to mow the grass before they came. When I went into the garage, I saw that Eva had taken the sports car to the bus stop – I knew I had to go and change cars before the afternoon. When I went to move the mower, the carb fell off in the floor. I then noticed the red paint on the trash can and the lawn mower.
I called Eva at work and asked her if she needed to tell me something. After she quit crying, she told me she forgot to close the car door when she backed out of the garage. When I drove into the parking lot at the bus stop, I could see the driver’s door would not shut all the way and the fender was bent where the door hinges had been forced back. I drove it home and called to cancel the appointment to sell my red sports car. I fixed the damage, but by that time I had to get another car so I traded the red sports car for another used car taking a financial hit, but it was cheaper than a divorce.
Memories – “Good Ole Days”. Who said they were all good? Nobody says knowledge comes cheap unless you learn from others’ mistakes.
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