MUSTANG FEVER

While I was in Vietnam, I saved all I could to buy a new Pontiac GTO. Having accumulated a whopping $900.00, I was a little short of the $5,000 necessary to purchase the machine of my dreams but I figured, at least, it would make a good down payment. However, when I got home, I discovered my Mom, Dad, brothers and sister were moving from California to Washington State and required some financial assistance, not only for the move, but also after they got settled in their new home. Things like a TV, a washer and dryer, a couch and so forth, pretty much used up the $900.00. They never asked me for anything, of course, but I just couldn't see having a new car when they were hurting for basics.

I began saving again and then bought a brand new 1969 Mach 1 Mustang, a car that I immediately fell in love with. It was a beauty and had a manual four speed, wide oval tires, bucket seats, a 351 Cleveland engine, the works. It cost me 36 payments of $104.72 and I was making $120.00 every two weeks. By the time I got it insured, I could barely afford to put gasoline in it, but I would look at it longingly and sigh. By then I had risen to the lofty rank of staff sergeant (E-5) and thought I had arrived.

It was all I could do to let my girlfriend drive it. It was just too beautiful to take a chance on getting it dinged. I had it a few months when, one morning I got in to start it up and nothing. It wouldn't start, it wouldn't make a sound when the ignition was turned on. What was this? I lifted up the hood and no battery! Someone had taken my battery and it was parked right in front of my apartment door. From then on, hood locks were essential equipment. In those days, there was no such thing as "popping the hood," from the inside of the car.

A few months later, my girlfriend became my wife. We started a family, got a mortgage and suddenly my wonderful Mustang was not "big enough," for a man with a new daughter. But I hung on as long as I could anyway. Eventually, by 1977, we had three more children and I traded in my adorable Mustang for a larger four door sedan. A sad day. Two years later, we received orders for Japan and then Germany for a total of seven years away from the States. I couldn't have taken the Mustang with me anyway. But, every now and then when I see a Mustang go by, especially the new body style of the 2006 Mustang, that copied the look of my former machine, I heave a sigh once more.