family here, too. But it wasn't brand-specific. I came home as a newborn in a '56 Plymouth wagon, as far as Dad's Mopars I recall a '60 Plymouth Wagon, '59 Imperial Crown, '63 Imperial LeBaron, '66 Imperial Crown, '69 New Yorker HT sedan, '72 New Yorker coupe, a couple of O24/TC3 Sport models.
And a BUNCH of weird stuff:
Alfa Romeo 2600 , 2 Metropolitans, a Goggomobil TS400, Biachini Transformibile, Citroen DS19 and assorted cars & trucks that just sort of "came & went".
My brother is 10 years older than I. Here's a few of his cars I remember: '70 Coronet with a lift off hood, '69 440 'Runner, '68 'Runner 383, '70 AAR lime green, a crazy /6 Dart with some sort of high rise intake that stuck the carb through the hood, and for non-Mopars a gray LS6 '70 Chevelle, no less that 15 '70 SS Chevelles, a REAL Ram Air IV '70 Goat, on and on and on and on...And he was the kind of brother that would throw the 18 year-old me the keys to any one of these things. I think he either loved me or was trying to kill me. My favorite was a '68 Charger R/T LOADED with options, Omaha orange, white butt stripe, interior & top. Good Gawd, it was a purdy one.
So here's me & Johnny at Dillon Dam and he tells the 14 year-old me "I'm drunk. You're driving home". I had driven on some back roads and fields but never on main roads. So I guess I'm driving. And what am I driving? A 1969 Road Runner, 440 4-speed, jacked up, 10" Cragars, bright orange with this crazy graphic on the quarter panel and the name "Optical Illusion" painted on the side in gold leaf. Yeah, we're not too conspicuous. So off I go, lurching through the gears, about 20 miles to our place on Buckeye Lake. I only stalled it once. Right in front of a cop at the intersection of Rt 40 & Rt 13. No harm no foul.
So I guess that's what started me along the path that I follow to this day. I have a deep affection and great memories of all things Mopar, but Dad instilled in me a love of all sorts of offbeat cars. I have owned about 175 cars and the types and makes are all over the board.
