It wasn't quite a babe mobile. It was purchased in the summer of 1964, a 1953 Chevy four-door sedan, straight six, stick-shift, 3-speed with a fair amount of body rust. But I put a lot of love into it as well as a lot of Bondo Body Filler. I don't recall how I learned to drive, and how I learned to drive a stick, but I do remember my dad taking me out for a lesson. I drove and he asked me to drive on some roads with the traffic was a lot faster and denser than where I'd been practicing so I was pretty nervous. But I must've done okay or you would not be reading this now. First note: At that time, one of the things young men did was go to a food drive-in, back into a parking place, order sodas from the waitress on roller skates, and sit back and try to act cool while watching young ladies who were customers drive through. So I took the car out with three of my buddies and drove to the nearby Frisch's Big Boy drive-in. Fortunately there was an open space there at a pretty spot. So I backed in . . . Well, I tried to back in. And it became immediately evident that my driving lessons had not covered this particular task. So - picture this - three of my friends in my car trying to look cool but sitting in a vehicle where the driver has to take 15 tries to get the car correctly backed into the space. My buddies were laughing uncontrollably and slumped down in their seats so no one would recognize them. The word "embarrassing" does not do justice to the situation. One other note. As a Junior at FSU I was allowed to take a car on campus (good luck finding a parking space). One winter day with a cold spell the Chevy wouldn't start. My roommate, Jim Rohleder, an Indiana high school fullback with an impressive record who decided that his best course of action for the future was to give up football and get a degree in Civil Engineering from Purdue, walked out to the car and gave it such a hearty push that the engine rolled over and caught. Jim also turned out to be a very successful Civil Engineer. All guys remember their first car. p.s. Perhaps remembering this drive-in experience, when - years later - I took the kids out for driving lessons, part of the lesson was always driving a "figure-8" around a set of cones - backwards!

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