Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
My first car . . . 1964 Impala SS 327/300 HP convertible with a Powerglide in this color combo |
It was November 1967 and I was living in Forest Hills, NY with my mom. She worked at JFK in Special Reservations (VIPS) @ Air France. THAT was a great opportunity for us because we could fly Air France and only had to pay the tax on the tickets. For the 12 months she worked there we visited 14 different countries. LOL - we once flew to Amsterdam to just to have dinner!
1967 was the year of the big teacher strike in NY (or was it just Queens?). I was 16 at the time. Beginning of November I still hadn't gone to school yet . Mom got an offer to work at Grossingers Hotel in Liberty, NY up in the Catskills. Packed up our stuff and off we went. THAT was a great time for me. We no longer lived together - she had her room and I had mine in a different building about 1/4 mile away. Every Friday the hotel would pack up with families (and all the girls wanted to be with the staff) and they all went home Sunday afternoon. I was: lifeguard at the indoor pool, bellhop, car jockey (parking and retrieving the guest's cars), mini-bus driver (on hotel grounds only) and eventually (after I turned 17 - legal age to drive in Upstate NY) became Paul Grossingers personal chauffer (he owned an apartment in NYC and visited 3/4 times a week).
It was my Senior year of High School. For a graduation present my mom said, " you buy the car and I'll pay for the first years insurance." $900 for the Impala.