EMPEHI.blogspot.com: MPHS Car and Driving Stories

Most of us have a fondness (or hatred) for our first car and/or our first driving experience. It represented freedom and adulthood.

We have been sharing driving and car stories from our MPHS years on our Yahoo page. Some of the stories are summarized below. If you have some stories or photos you would like to share, please email them to us and we will post.

Tony Visser's Mighty Mighty Mustang

My first car was a 1966 Mustang and is
parked in my garage. Runs like a champ.

I think there's a team with that name at Morgan Park H.S.

Tony Visser Sutherland 63

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Lucky, Blessed, Fortunate and sooooo much fun for you....

Definitely cool. Then and now.

Ron Veenstra

Thanks Ron. I've can't tell you how much fun it is to romp around with in good weather. There have been some performance upgrades, headers, 5 speed Tremec T5, 330 hp, the list is long. My son will get it someday, just to keep it in the family.

TV

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Renee Toppen, Don Martensen and Allen Carlson MPHS Jan 66

Dueling Volkswagen Prepare for a Drag Race

Dave Innes MPHS Jan 66 - James Bond Studebaker Hawk

Whizzer Motorbike - Classic Mt Greenwood Chopper - Photo from Bob Glines MPHS Jan 66. Bob, Pete Terry, Don Martensen, George Traister, Tom Schildhouse and Craig Hullinger terrorized the neighborhood with these awsome machines.

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My Norton Commando Interstate approx 1975 ish, with dunstall pipes,very fast for1975

Bob Glines
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Craig Hullinger MPHS Jan 66 - My first car was a 1930 Model A Ford convertible with a rumble seat that I owned in high school. I bought it in Draper, South Dakota in 1965 where it had been rusting for many years. The body remained in a very rough state - we painted over the rust and welded fenders.

The top leaked, there was no interior, and you could see the ground
through the floorboards. But she was my first car and I loved her.

More on my Model A at

http://modelahullinger.blogspot.com/

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No photos of the cars, and I burned the negatives.

My first night out after getting my drivers license, I slid on the ice and planted my dad's Pontiac into the light pole in front of Alan Engelberg's house at 100th and Hamilton. It
was still crooked until about 10 years ago. I asked for it having fun on the ice.

Two weeks later we got the car back and I drove to a party at Jack Wiesands. While craning my neck to see who was on the porch as we drove up, I planted the Pontiac into the back of Tom Breen's '58 T-Bird. The
T-Bird didn't have a scratch but the Pontiac was totaled. We pushed it about two blocks down an alley up against a telephone pole and Jim Ohse reached under the dash and pulled out a big handful of wires. I caught a ride to another party at Kathie Kirk's house and called the car in stolen.

Got away with it but sweated bullets for weeks.

A week or so later I promptly drove my brother's MG-A into the back of a Cadillac while trying to fish his sun glasses off the floor after they slid off the dash board.

In the public interest I didn't drive for a while after that. I could'a been the poster boy for why teenagers shouldn't be allowed to drive.

Please don't tell my son, OK?

Willy Horton (Name withheld to protect the guilty)

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Ummm Will, if your dad is no longer on this planet and wasn't aware of this when he was on Earth....he certainly knows about it now if he's on the Other Side.

And you will most likely be getting a lickin with his halo when the two of you meet up in the distant future. Just a warning.

Sue Engle B

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Just one question, Will: has your driving improved any over the years?

Marie

Yeah, I learned slowly, but well, and have had no accidents since high school that were my fault. (Got T-boned by a red light runner about 5 years ago, but that was not my fault) Oh yeah. I had a speeding ticket
about 20 years ago, too.

Will

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First Car...my Dad's car....

Hey ....Tony...

My first car that I drove was my Dad's Oldsmolbile...with the llllong...fins...what year was that???? The reason I could drive his car, ..was that my Dad was a painter and had a truck to haul his painting ladders and gear so I got to have his car for school.

I don't know...all i know was that I was able to drive it to school every day, when I was a Jr.at EMPEHI !!!

I had A LOT of friends....well, no one else had "wheels" so , I got to drive a bunch of us girls up to REDS at lunch time....can u imagine TODAY if they let the 3,600 kids here in the H S out for lunch!!!

Geez...Lou - ise!!!

One time at MPEHI I parked on the West side of the school...where all those houses were STILL there to the West of us parkin' on the EAST.....OF THE WEST side of the school!!! follow me??

ANYHOW....when I was leavin' the school I parked SOOO good in between the car in front of me and in back of me... I proceeded to pppull out of the parking
space...APPARENTLY...I didn't back up far ENOUGH and when I pulled out I turned the wheel back to the right 2 soon and KINDA SIDE-SWIhe car in front of me!!!... Well...don't forget I was drivin' a BOAT...for gosh sakes!!! WELL, scared the _______ out of me...cause I thought I damaged my DAD's dog-gone car and how
to ESPLAIN...that to him when he saw the dented in car....

WELL, I got out of the car by the HS to look at my damage...BUTT.... the other car got the damage cause there was the trim going across the side of my car and the other car got the dent goin' all the way across it's body....

What to do???? leave and forget....am sorry...to whoever's car that was.... I was scared... :-(

SO...that's my story...and am stickin' to it...I was stuck to the other car until I pulled out...uuup, up and away...

Oh well,

Then I bought a used 67 chevy in 69. I loved it...black vinyll top and white bodice...(girl terms)

When I think of NO SEATBELTS back in the day...I get a nervous feelin'....geez...how unsafe we were and didn't even realize it!!

MEMORIES...pressed between the pages of my mind.....(bad and good)

p,s, NEVER told my Dad...

P.S. The only thing I didn't like was the back seat of the 66' Mustang...there's wasn't alot of room for the 3rd and 4th person...

AND...it was a darn tight space to make-out in too....

LinLou

I did take a picture of my chevy at 106th place. I wouldn't of gotten away with crackin' up my Dad's olds. I WAS fortunate that the crease was on the "other guys" car instead of my Dad's car!!!!

(maybe that was Will's car that I creased!!...

OH well, if it WAS...he probably ... never got in trouble for it...so

am OK after all these years of feelin' bad about it...thanks...Will...

P.S.Joan.... Then your car looked like a Granny Smith??? You SHOULD have it back...Granny!!!

LinLou

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Hey Linlou- That was my car you hit!

You owe me $300.

Charles Van Liere

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My first car was a candy apple green, 1967 Ford Mustang Sprint. Needless to say, I LOVED THAT CAR. If I dig, I still have a picture of it parked in front of our house on Central Park Ave. in Mt. Greenwood. I was working for the C&NW R.R. at the time (I turned 21 when I worked there), and one of the guys (I worked for the R.R. cops) co-signed the loan I got at the Proviso (yard) credit union, because I had no prior credit, and my father would not co-sign for me. God bless you, Mel Knox!Sure wish I still had that car. It was so sweet!

Joan Pettavino '66

P.S. Sorry my story is so boring compared to Will's, but obviously my parents paid much more attention to what I was doing than Will's did to him. I would NEVER have gotten away with the crap he wrote about. And don't worry, Will, I will not tell your son! LOL

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives! Maya Angelou

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My first car was a Valiant. It was cheap and had a manual trans, conversion on the floor and my Dad insisted on a manual trans 'cuz he was a mechanic and felt automatics were expensive to fix and unreliable and he could fix anything on a stick shifter. It had torn seats and a hole in the trunk that splashed water up into the compartment on wet pavement, but it ran, and ran, and ran, and ran (you get the ideas).

It took me long time to get my license 'cuz of my motorcycle accident. Financial responsibility insurance was astronomical.

I bought my first new car, an Olds Cutlass with T-tops a few years later. In between, I had Ford station wagon that was set up in the back to transport my dog. I was training dogs at the time and it seemed like a good fit.

Tom Schildhouse

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