Independence at Last – Sliding Behind the Wheel
A Monthly Feature by ELAINE THOMAS
Record readers recall the thrill of acquiring their first vehicle
Memories of first-time car ownership stir up pleasurable memories for: Cliff Giese, Gene Freudenburg, Bibi Bargas, Ann Rogers, Glenn Altwein, Vicki Woodard and Nelson Darden.
Cliff Giese
“My first car was a 1946 Chevrolet pickup that I bought from my grandfather, John Giese, in 1966. It had a green body and black fenders, no radio and no heater,” recalls Cliff, who got his license at 14. “I paid $25 for the truck, a special grandson deal.”
Cliff drove the truck with a few dents and a little rust on the fenders during his junior and senior years at La Grange High School, 1966-1968. Its dependable mechanical condition made up for what the pickup might have lacked in glamor.
“Since the truck’s top speed was 45 to 50 miles an hour, my parents didn’t remind me not to drive above the speed limit. Instead, they warned me about watching for other vehicles while driving at night or in bad weather.”
When Cliff went off to college in 1970, he put his old truck in the barn on the farm eight miles northwest of La Grange and drove off in a used 1969 Dodge Dart.
Gene Freudenburg
“My first car was a twotone, cream and aqua, 1955 Ford Fairlane, four-door sedan, V-8 automatic that had been locally owned. It was a really nice car in great condition. I bought it in December 1958 from Mr. Frede at La Grange Motor Co., the Ford dealership across from The Fayette County Record’s office,” Gene Freudenburg says.
Gene could qualify for a $1,450 bank loan because he had a new, steady job working for the highway department. The car had the standard features of the era: AM radio and heater.
However, Gene had never lacked transportation. Since his family owned a feed store in La Grange, at least two vehicles, sometimes three, were available. He’d been interested in cars for a long time. Before he got his driver’s license when he was 14, Gene fondly remembers sitting behind the steering wheel of his dad’s truck; his feet did not yet reach the pedals.
“I drove that Ford Fairlane until 1960. I traded it for a new Ford Falcon four-door when I got married,” Gene adds.
Juanita Bargas
Legendary car dealer Tommy Brasher of Brasher Motor Co. in Weimar sold Juanita Bargas her first car off the showroom floor in 1982.
“It was a two-door, 1982 Buck Regal Limited Coupe, dusty blue with a partial vinyl top. It came fully equipped with velour seats and automatic windows and seats. I knew it was the one for me,” Bargas reminisces. She still remembers the trip home to Holman on FM 155 that winds through the hills.
“I had a lead foot, so as I sped home in that beauty, it hugged all the curves and glided over all the bumps.”
Bargas had saved up a substantial down payment to buy her cream puff. She doesn’t recall her dad’s advice, but her mother’s instruction sticks in her memory.
“Mom said, ‘Place a cowboy hat in the back window so folks will think there’s a man with you!”
Bargas drove her first car, which symbolized both accomplishment and independence, for three years. She sold it after she was married to buy a four-door car.
Ann Rogers
When she returned home to Weslaco, a sheltered only child living in the Kinsolving Dormitory at the University of Texas in Austin, Ann got the shock of her life a few days before her 19th birthday.
“I thought I needed to begin discussions with my parents about getting a car for the following year when I’d be doing my student teaching. I knew how reluctant they would be because they’d have to admit their baby was growing up!” Ann Rogers says.
“When I got home for Thanksgiving, my parents surprised me with my birthday/ Christmas present – a 1964.5 butter yellow Mustang fastback with a palomino- color interior, AC and power steering. It had been a demonstrator. Surprised would be an understatement to describe my reaction.”
Ann, who had taken her driver’s education as a high school freshman and got her driver’s license at 14, had driven her mom’s car around Weslaco while living at home. When she left for college, she got rides with two other local UT students.
“I only drove the Mustang for two years, though. Daddy bought cars for Mother, me and himself, and he liked spreading his business among several of the car dealers in town. He replaced the Mustang with a Pontiac LeMans!”
Memories of that Mustang still keep Ann warm.
“My first car symbolized that my parents were, however reluctantly, acknowledging that their little bird would be flying away before too long.”
Glenn Altwein
When Glenn Altwein got married in 1959, he bought a 1955 green Chevy 210 twodoor sedan with a small V-8 motor from the Chevrolet dealership in New Braunfels, Texas. Since the car didn’t have a radio, Glenn carried a portable that ran on batteries.
“I made a small down payment and financed my first car through my father. It cost $950. My father didn’t think much of my choice. He said I should have bought a cheaper, much older vehicle. I think he had in mind something like a 1938 car with floor shifting.”
Years before, after Glenn got his driver’s license at 16, he sometimes borrowed his mother’s 6-cylinder 1953 Chevy Bel Air that was light blue with a white top. Featuring auto drive, power glide and a two-speed transmission, the four-door beauty had previously been owned and driven by the Chevy dealer.
“That car was sharp and it was hot. I could beat any other six-cylinder in New Braunfels. We used to double and triple date back then in that car going to movies and parties. It was a great car for that time!” Glenn explains.
Glenn admits his 1955 Chevy 210 sedan was a good car for its time, too, and because it had a small V-8, it could run and run on a tank of gas that cost 24.9¢ or less per gallon. The vehicle didn’t have a lot of pizzazz, however.
Fast forward to 1962, when Glenn was stationed in Munich, Germany, and still driving his 1955 Chevy 210. He sold it to a local man and bought a new 1962 Rambler Station Wagon through the PX. It was a four-door, 6-cylinder with a 3-speed shift on the steering wheel, plus it had a radio.
“Now that was a great car for its time! I wish I still had it!”
Vicki Woodard
“My father specially ordered a 1965 blue Ford Mustang, three-speed on the floor, in 1965 as a family car. After my youngest brother was born, my parents decided that two adults, three kids and a baby couldn’t all fit in the Mustang. They needed a bigger car, so they put the Mustang in the garage until I turned 16,” Vicki Woodard remembers.
“There was only one problem. I couldn’t drive a standard shift,” says the Springfield, Missouri, native.
However, when she was 10 years old, Vicki had learned to drive a ski boat on nearby Table Rock Lake and at 12 she was operating a tractor on her cousin’s farm. She decided to go for it!
“In mid-January 1971, I took my birth certificate, $5 in cash and my grandmother’s Cutlass Supreme, which was an automatic, to the DMV. I got my driver’s license! Then I took the car back to my grandma and proceeded to teach myself to drive my beautiful Mustang,” she says.
Vicki’s sports car was blue with a white landau top and blue interior. It had bucket seats, no AC and a radio that only picked up AM stations.
“I was so ready to be out on my own, so my Mustang represented freedom. I only had it a short time before my father took it away. I couldn’t – or wouldn’t – get home by curfew. He didn’t seem to understand the fun didn’t start until 10 p.m.”
Nelson Darden
The exterior of Nelson Darden’s first car was black with a red pinstripe down each side. The interior of the 1976 Chevy Monte Carlo he purchased from Hempstead Chevrolet in Hempstead, was soft, red velveteen.
“I was living at home with my parents in La Grange and had worked on farms, nurseries and at odd jobs to make the down payment of $2,000. I financed the remaining $4,000 with La Grange State Bank,” Nelson recollects.
His parents reminded him not to speed and to pay attention when he was behind the wheel. Nelson had practiced those lessons when borrowing his parents’ car after getting his license at 17. Owning and operating the Monte Carlo, a very reliable vehicle, underscored Nelson’s determination to keep working to pay the insurance and buy gas – lots of gas.
“Driving my Monte Carlo was awesome, but six months later, I totaled it when I fell asleep driving home from college. My insurance company dropped me a year later, but that’s another story.”
In his memory, the red pinstripes on Nelson’s first car still make him think of a cool speed racer with speeding tickets to prove it.
“Do I wish I still had that Monte Carlo? No. Perhaps that shows I have matured and no longer want to be considered cool... I think!”