In January 1983, I bought a 1973 4 wheel drive Jeep Pick-up. It had a 360 cubic in. motor with 4 wheel Quadra-Trak, an automatic transmission, and power steering. It was originally a parts vehicle for a local auto dealership and was painted red, white, and blue. It was a plain, no frills vehicle and when the engine was idling, it sounded like "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG", so thats what I called it. It got me through a lot of snow.

One night, while going out on a date, my Dad said "Take the Jeep, we're going to get a snowstorm". Well I took the Grand Prix, that had L60 X 14's on it in the rear.

It was 1 AM, when I took my date home, and the stars were shining brite. So we went inside, I fell asleep to MTV, and woke up to my surprise, at 3:30 AM, to see 4 inches of snow on the ground. I said to myself "Ohhh ----"!! I don't know if I'll get home. I was 21 miles away and it was snowing like crazy.

At 22 years old, I gave it a try. I got 4 miles and then couldn't make it up a hill. I knocked on another old lady's door, at 4:00 AM, to call up my date. She came and rescued me with her 1975 Mustang. I spent the rest of the night at her place.

We got my car the next morning, and it was still snowing like crazy. I parked it at her house, and it sat there for 2 weeks, buried under snow. Well, she took me home that day, still snowing, and when I got home my Dad said "I told you to take the Jeep, but you wouldn't listen". That's all I needed to hear.

So I bought a 1976 Chevy K5 Blazer 4 wheel drive. This was much CLASSIER than that JEEP. It had power everything. It was charcoal grey and silver, with a maroon interior.

In Spring 1984, I moved out of the house,(mom & dads), and got my own apartment. I sold my Blazer, because it was literally falling apart from the rust, and bought a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix with all the do-dads including Tee-Tops. I got spoiled with the luxuries of the Blazer and my 69 Grand Prix was a stick shift and it had no air conditioning.

The '77 GP had a 400 cu. in, 4 barrel, but I went back to the automatic transmission. I parked the 69 GP in 1985, at my parents place, with 35,000 miles on the rebuilt motor. I was renting an apartment and could not keep two cars there.