"H" is for Hornet

Growing up, my dad had always made it clear to my brothers and me that he would never buy us a car. If we wanted a car, we could work for it. However, once we actually turned 16 and it was time to get a job, there was one small problem. We lived 20 miles out of town. Unless we wanted to work for the crazy farmer down the road who threw rocks when he got mad (which was often), or go into town where the work was.

My mother had driven an '84 Mercury Lynx for the last few years and it was passed down to me. My mother got a new car and I got to drive the Lynx/Studmobile. I drove this car until I raced a Trans Am home after work one night. At about 75 MPH the car shook so bad, I didn't know if I would be able to keep it on the road. I lost the race, obviously, and it blew up the next day when my mother was driving it.

I had several cars over the next few years. Some were fast, some were not. Some looked great, others were falling apart. Luckily, I've have never been too concerned about appearance and was just happy to always have something to get me around. It was this lack of shame that brought me to the car this post is all about.

I can't believe I found this picture on Google. It is
almost identical to ours. Even the wood paneling.

When my youngest brother Trevor turned 16, he was presented with a 1974 AMC Hornet wagon that dad had purchased for $50 to obtain a part for another car. He had never intended for the car to be driven, but that was the extra we had when Trevor became licensed. Kyle and myself had always driven the cars that had graciously been given to us regardless of their sex appeal condition. Kyle had even used the car given to him to make extra money to buy an AMC Javelin. Trevor, however, looked this car over and said, "I am NOT driving that."

Dad informed him that he wasn't getting anything else. The front end may be a little damaged and one of the headlights was hanging down attached only by the wires, but if he wanted something better, he would have to take care of it himself. This was his car until then.

Trevor did not reconsider and never drove that car. He found other ways to get around.

Kyle had just started at a technical school in Chicago and, after a few minor fender benders, had some serious concerns about the safety of the Javelin he had worked so hard for. When he found out there was an extra car no one cared about just sitting at our house, he switched until he graduated. When he came back home, the car was then passed to me.

By that time, the car had been in a few more big city incidents. The bumper was loose on one side and the headlight was still swinging by the wires. I discovered that on rainy days my feet would get wet due to the holes rusted through the floor board. One of the doors wouldn't open and sometimes the headlights would just go out. Shortly after getting it, I had to change out the radiator, but the new one was a few inches taller so the hood wouldn't shut. I had to use chicken wire to keep it down.

Despite all the things wrong with the car, it ran great. Especially since Dad had only paid $50 for it to get a few parts for another car. It had its little quirks. If I suddenly let off the gas, it gave off a huge backfire that sounded like a small cannon. If I did this at night, it lit up everything within 15 feet of the car for a short moment. The exhaust had fallen off soon after I got it, so it was a very loud car. This is also the same car that I used to run my brother Trevor down in the school parking lot which resulted in my windshield being shattered.

I drove that car until I got married and parked it when I got my next one. It sat for a few years until I left for college and gave it to a family in our church. We got it going again and they drove it for a few more years. It got a lot of mileage for 50 bucks.

I actually miss that car.

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Happily participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For the entire month of April, 1,891 bloggers are working their way through the alphabet. One letter every day except Sundays for a total of 26 days.

Click here to visit the website and get more information to see if you might want to join in next year. It's a lot of fun, introduces you to hundreds of new blogs and gives your writing some fantastic exposure.