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My first car was
a extraordinary black, 2 door 1962 Chevy Belair with blue vinyl seats,
which I nicknamed “The Black Beauty”! I mean she shined beautifully when
polished. There is nothing like a black car highly polished! It also
didn’t hurt to have those 8 cylinders and that great 283 workhorse engine
that Chevy put in it! And all for the bargain price of $400! Five years
later I sold it for the same price!
Like many of my generation, we normally got cars for our graduation. I was
lucky, as my dad worked for Rolls Royce and the head mechanic there,
Johnny T was selling this fantastic car. Now this wasn’t just any 1962
Chevy Belair. Since Johnny T was an avid fisherman and didn’t want to ruin
the upholstery he covered the cloth upholstery with a blue vinyl one.
Johnny also put in all the instrumentation needed on the inside of the
car, oil and temp gauge, and tach. He also installed a blinker system, so
the blinkers were on the hood. The final coupe de grace was putting Rolls
Royce seat belts in the car. Since Johnny was a great mechanic and of
course, did all his own work, when he sold us the car he included extra
tires and all the materials to keep the brakes up to par for many years to
come.
I can remember my first drive in the car. I pulled out of my drive way and
drove over to the park a couple blocks away, too, of course, show it off
to all my friends.
I cleaned the Black Beauty every weekend from top to bottom. My Saturday
morning ritual was cleaning the inside, and then washing it. I waxed it
once a month. My dad went and got me a 8 track cassette for it (yes, I
know I just dated myself; for those of you who don’t know what an8 track
is, think CD player of today)! Unfortunately my poor baby was broken into
a couple oftimes when they stole my 8 track and some very nasty person
slit the front seat. Bad enough they took my 8 track and tapes, the least
they could have done is left the seat alone. So, yes there were bad eggs
around then too!
Whenever we had to make a trip into the city (New York that is), my father
made me drive while he sat in the back seat. It had a amazingly
comfortable ride, even with all the pot holes on the Long Island
Expressway! In addition to drives into the city, I had loads of fun in the
Black Beauty with my friends.
Unfortunately I had to sell the “Black Beauty” when my husband and I went
off to graduate school. However, don’t feel too bad, we had replaced it
with a 1976 Pontiac Trans Am, yep, the last of the big 455’s. Plus we had
the engine blue printed, balanced and a whole lot more, so it really
hauled a**!
We sold the Black Beauty to a neighbor, who took out the vinyl seats and
lo and behold the cloth ones were in excellent condition. He eventually
sold it to his brother in Brooklyn, who while driving one day went to step
on the brake pedal and his foot went through the floor. Unfortunately the
harsh NY winters aren’t kind to cars!
I think many of us wax sentimental when we think of our first car, I know
I do! Luckily , I still have my pictures and some very great memories of
my “Black Beauty”!
Drive On!
DeFiore Enterprises, Copyright 2005
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