First a bit of history:
In June of 1965, in the same week that I was born, my father bought a brand new 1965 Dodge Dart GT Convertible from Carbone Dodge in Utica, NY. His car was gold with a white interior and white top. It had a 273 V8 and a 4 speed. The story goes that he gathered up his wife and new baby in his new car and drove to my grandmother’s house to see the in-laws. Unfortunately, the new baby stole the show and there was little interest in the new car.
To fully appreciate this story, you have to understand a little bit about my dad. Since I’ve been old enough to remember, all the cars he’s ever owned have been totally practical with the emphasis on low cost, reliability, and good gas mileage. In approximately 60 years of automotive ownership, my dad has purchased exactly 3 brand new vehicles. This was the first. The second was a stripped down 1980 Toyota Corolla which was a demonstrator, so technically it doesn’t even count. The third was a 1994 Dodge RAM 2500 4x4 with a Cummins turbo diesel. All the rest were used cars. So it’s difficult to imagine him walking onto a dealer lot at age 21, and buying a brand new V8 GT Convertible. I guess they must have been sold out of slant 6, radio delete, 4 doors with rubber floor mats. That or he was really freaked out about becoming a father. Mid-life crisis at age 21?
Five years of upstate New York winters were not kind to the Dodge Dart. With a second child and all the associated baby crap, it was time for a bigger, more practical car. So he sold the Dart to my uncle Dave in western PA, who later sold it to his cousin Jughead (seriously, that’s what they call him). Jughead eventually parked the Dart in his backyard where it rusted away. It finally went to the scrap yard sometime in the the last 10 years.
Here is the only picture of the car I have, parked in front of my grandparent’s house in Duncansville, PA, sometime in the late 1960's.
rayer:
