1965 Impala

I am not nice to cars. I have ruined almost every car or truck I have owned. Some of this I can write off as inexperience in my callow youth. But, the truth is, I was ruining cars well into my 30's.

My first car was a 1965 Chevy Impala. It was sturdy, and held up to much abuse. Actually it was a tank. I got the car in 1969. I was a 22 year old college student and proud if myself for having talked the price down $500 by threatening to walk out of the dealers showroom. My first accident came after I owned the car about a month. I backed out of the driveway one morning and swung it around to face down the street. K. came out of the house waving her hands for me to stop, so I did. The Impala had a scratch on its rear fender, but my neighbors car had a significantly dented front end. From this incident I learned about insurance and to keep an eye out behind me. This same car succumbed to front end damage in the early 70's when I looked down to see what fell off the dashboard just as a tree entered my lane on 11th street. It finally succumbed to major abuse one weekend when I went to Kansas City. I drove over a curb in a fit of parking lot rage, bottomed out the front end and cracked the exhaust manifold. I must have also damaged the transmission, since I lost 3rd gear. So I roared back to Lawrence down highway 10 that night in 2nd gear. I sold it to a junkyard that same month.