Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Originally printed November 3, 2007.

One of my favorite things to say to the gas station attendant when I give him $75 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. I’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. It was fun to sit in though.

The first car that I actually got on the road was a 1965 Rambler American with a stick shifter on the column. That gem cost me $60 and another $70 to insure and register it for the whole year. That car’s name: “Clem” – “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. It 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 as my friend Charlie exclaimed: “…70…80…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. The idiot light burnt out and I didn’t know it had no oil. I was the idiot.

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. I 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 jerk 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 (see photo). What a deal! I used to pass this car on my street and literally drool over it! It looked like a mafia car. It was so big it had footrests in the back seats. I could fit about 10 of my friends in that boat. Originally I had to push it into my driveway but all it needed was a radiator from the junk yard! I remember my rolling 30th birthday party. Dave Stefanelli (Zenophon, RTZ, PeterWolf) was the designated driver and we had a blast. That car lasted three years.

It was easy to keep these junk boxes going. If a water pump broke we went to Nissenbaum’s junkyard and bought a used one. Re-treads and used tires were $15. My cousin Butch was always fixing one of my clunkers for me. He saved me a bundle.

The last cool car I had was a sleek white 1992 Chevy Camaro Convertible. It was usually parked somewhere in Davis Square. Back in the day we showed off our cars in the high school parking lot, at The Dairy Queen, Friendly’s, and of course down the Mystics.

Today I have a big old gas guzzling SUV, and if you see it parked anywhere it’s probably in my girlfriend’s driveway, at work, at Stop N’ Shop or in front of a Dunkin Donuts.