MY FIRST CAR WAS A HOOPTIE
I hated that car! It just wasn’t the car for me. It made a terrible squealing sound and sometimes you had to pat the gas petal to keep it running. It looked like a big car boat on wheels.
My first job was at McDonalds. I think minimum wage back then was 3.35 an hour. I must have been around fifteen years old. I saved every little check because I was saving for a car. I didn’t have a preference I just wanted something small to get me around. My Moma and I always had to depend on someone to take us everywhere we went. She didn’t drive because she had many health issues.
Moma had a boyfriend at the time. I suppose he was having financial issues. He was going to sell his old Ford LTD. I had driven him and my Moma around before I got my driver's license, when he was too drunk to drive. I had no clue how to drive but I crawled behind that wheel and drove that big old thing. I knew we were safer with me driving. I just leaned in so I could see out of the windshield, with both hands on the wheel and kept it as close to the line as I could.
My Moma wanted me to buy the old car to help him out. I didn’t have a choice; however, I knew it was a terrible idea. I handed over my money that I had worked so hard for, and he gave me the keys to the hooptie.
He was going to drive his El camino with the dog box in the back. He rabbit hunted with his beagle dogs. He and my Moma pulled up at school one day to surprise me and pick me up from school. They pulled up right in the middle of the school bus line. I felt the heat in my face burn as every eye was on me as I climbed in. The car was loud. I just lay on the back seat, covering my face. He was so mad at me and told me he would never pick me up from school again. I was glad.
My car was a light yellowish green with a green top. The top was worn, cracked and pieces just stuck up everywhere. I went to pick my friend up at her house in the old car. Her dad came out and began laughing. He asked her if she was going to ride in that! I could not believe a grown man could be so rude. She never said a word and we just drove off with him shaking his head.
I had not had the car long at all. Me and my Moma decided to go to Walmart. Headed down a hill with a line of cars in front of me, I placed my foot on the brake to slow down for the red light ahead. The brakes went to the floor. I gripped the steering wheel and told Moma we had no brakes. I went around all the cars, through the redlight and side swiped someone before I came to a stop.
To make matters worse the police officer was brutal. He told me to get the car out of the road after explaining that the car had no brakes! I told him I wasn't moving the car without brakes. I knew I was in trouble because I did not have any insurance and I had just sunk in the whole side of someone's car.
We had the wrecked car pulled to our apartment. No one was hurt, just the cars. I was so upset at my Moma for having me give all my money for that car. Now I had no car and no money. She loved the car because she loved him. Even though it was wrecked she still did not want it gone. The car sat out in the parking lot of the apartments for a long time. The apartment manager finally told her it had to be moved. She finally allowed it to be hauled off to the junk yard.
My sweet Mamaw gave me money to buy another car allowing me to make payments to her weekly. I had gotten another job at The Movie House. She wrote down my payments for me in a notebook. I paid my car note faithfully. After a long while I had paid maybe half or a little over half, she told me that would be my last payment.
I have driven many cars since my first car. I think my favorite was a bright yellow 5 speed, chevy cobalt. I called it the yellow banana. When I bought this car from an older man at a car lot, he said “Mam, I don’t think you would like that car.” I asked to test drive and as I looked back, I laughed at the look on his face as I wheeled out of the driveway.
I still name my cars, vehicles. I am a grandmother now and drive the Blueberry, which is a van. If I see an old boat car I just think “Bless their heart” as I remember my Hooptie. Karen Schwartz
