My First Car

I had a number of my classmates bring up my 1948 Chevy Hearse at our class reunion (Green River HS class of 1971). It seemed that many had memories, including taking it to "Dollar Night" at the Rock Springs drive-in movie. I remember one night we had twenty people in the car, but only three of us watched the movie. It was also used as a roaming party-mobile, and some of you spent more than one night sleeping in it.

I purchased the hearse from the Smith family's funeral home. They wouldn't negotiate on the whopping $125 price, so I borrowed $25 from my dad, and made my first car deal. You may recall it was maroon outside and black leather in the front. The back had maroon crushed-velvet, tasseled window curtains, a seat that folded out of the floor, and a sliding glass window separating it from the drivers compartment... AND, it still had a siren.

Within 10 minutes of purchasing it, I was pulled over by a Green River policeman. He stopped me on the way up the hill to Lincoln HS. Knowing I couldn't out-run him, I pulled over and set the brake. He asked to see my bill of sale and my morticians license, HA HA, (he was put up to this by Rudy Pershin's dad who was with him). They got a pretty good laugh out of it. But I got the last laugh... When I pushed in the clutch to start my new set of wheels, it rolled back striking (and denting) the front of the police car. Lucky for me... that got an even bigger laugh out of Rudy Sr. and the cop.

Gary Gomez reminded of a night that we had some under-classmen with us in the car. We were out near Jamestown, when Roxanne S. and Vicki C. were desperate to make their bladder gladder. We found a side road and let them out into the dark of night to find some relief. Like an unlearned underclassman would do, one of them (name withheld to protect the innocent) walked up about 30 feet in front of the car, dropped her pants (or mini-skirt), and I'm sure gave a big sigh of relief. Gary then INSISTED that I turn on the headlights. I didn't want to do it, of course, but now I know where the phrase "caught with your pants down" comes from.

I posted the only picture I have of my first car. Sadly, it was taken with a Polaroid, and hasn't held up well over the years. That's my little sister Sally with me.