My dad bought me my first car - a $200 Ford Maverick!

Was this a way of telling me something?

My first car was a light blue, two-door 1974 Ford Maverick. It had a classic sporty shape, but in 1985 or so when the Mav was my ride, it reminded me of something some fella would drag race on the back roads. The radio receiver didn’t work, but the cassette player did. I fed it a regular diet of The Outfield, Crowded House and John Cougar Mellencamp albums.

I came home from school one afternoon during my junior year of high school, and my dad asked me to go get something for him from the garage. Thank goodness I didn’t whine about it, because when I opened the door there was the Maverick! A piece of cardboard was propped up on its windshield with the word “Surprise!” scrawled in his writing. He picked it up for a mere $200 from a co-worker.

I have great memories of piling my friends inside to go toilet paper someone’s house. It must have had a pretty deep trunk, because that’s where the Charmin got stacked to supply our night of shenanigans. It was my transportation for all your classic high school moments: football games, high school dances … and, eventually, the drive to college.

By the time I was a junior in college, my dad was afraid the old Mav would give up the ghost and leave me stranded on some frozen Ohio highway. Somewhere he came across a white 1980 Chevy Citation and switched the Mav out for that. I drove the Citation until one day when the road curved and I didn’t. You get the picture.