On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

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One of my favorite things to say to the gas station attendant when I give him $65 to fill up my truck is: “I used to pay less than this for a car!” Well, it’s true people – the year was 1970 and the very first car I bought was a 1962 Dodge РI’m pretty sure it was a Valiant. I paid $50 for it and it had push buttons for the transmission. I didn’t even have my license yet and there was a clunker parked in my father’s driveway. That car sat there for three months and never got registered.

The first car that I actually got on the road was a 1965 Rambler American with a stick shifter on the column Рthat gem cost me $60 and another $100 to insure and register it for the whole year. That car’s name Р“Clem” Р“Clem” was a “Lem”-on.

After that I couldn’t wait for my father to get a new car so I could take possession of his 1967 Dodge Dart with the slant-6 225 cubic inch engine. I loved that car Рit was the first car I drove the day I finally got my license. I took it up to the top of Route 2 in Belmont and drove down Рas my friend Charlie exclaimed: “…70…80…90…100 miles per hour!” When I returned the car to my dad an hour later, he noticed the gas tank was on “E.” He asked very sternly: “where the hell did you go, China?” I drove that car until I seized the engine Рthe idiot light burnt out and I didn’t know it had no oil.

Then the clunkers came fast and furiously. The ’62 Chevy Bel-Air that burned oil. (I used to smoke up Davis Square back when you could take a left onto Highland Avenue from College Avenue). The ‘68 Chevy wagon that needed ball-joints and the ‘65 Chevy Impala Convertible – that last one was a peach РI paid $75 for it and even though the ripped ragtop had to be pulled up by hand, it was sweet! I drove it for about three months until some idiot plowed into me and it was totaled.

I remember a BP Station in Davis Square…for $3 you could drive around for an entire Friday and Saturday night. The best deal I ever got was when my neighbor sold me a 1973 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham for $35 – what a deal! Sure, it looked like a mafia car – it was so big, it had footrests in the back seats. I could fit about 12 of my friends in that boat. I remember my rolling 30th birthday party – Dave Stefanelli was the designated driver and we had a blast…that car lasted three years.

Remember those great places we used to go to park? My favorite place to park was down the Mystics Рto watch the submarine races. It usually ended with a cop’s flashlight being shined in your face, the wiping of the foggy windows and driving home.

It was easy to keep these junk boxes going Рif a water pump broke, we went to Nissenbaum’s junkyard and bought a used one. Re-treads and used tires were $20.

The last cool car I had was a sleek white 1992 Chevy Camaro Convertible – it was parked behind Redbones all the time.

Back in the day we showed off our clunkers at The Hutch in Teele Square, at the High School, at The Dairy Queen and of course down the Mystics.

Today I have a pretty nice car, but the place you’ll see me parked most often is in front of the school waiting for my kids to get out.

You can email Jimmy with comments directly at jimmydel@rcn.com