It is hard when you never learned how to use one
It was very pretty and I was bored with my car and wanted something to make driving fun
I did not want something new… could not afford it and maintain my fun lifestyle.
Nurses did not make great money and we were down one room mate.
So I went to the dealership and fell in love. It was an off-white Datsun ( Now Nissan) 260Z. It had a manual transmission and I had to confess that I did not know how to drive it.
So , the salesman did and it was a dream. We were in a city with lots of traffic. The drive was smooth and going through the gears looked effortless.
I was sold. My room mate had a stick shift VW and she could teach me.
I made arrangements and they were taking my car in a trade.
It ended up that my car was almost an even trade – since it had low miles and was 2 yrs old.
The Z had 140k in miles and I had to have it. Made a down payment by check.
Got my bank loan info and went back to dealership a couple of days later.
All was going well – until it wasn’t. The Datsun Title was in the Dealership Owner’s Safety Deposit Box.
Unfortunately, the owner was at a car auction that day. But his wife was the bookkeeper.
Salesman called her at home and she agreed to go to the bank.
About a 1/2 hour later, she pulled up and asked me to get into her huge Cadillac and come to bank with her. Her little baby was asleep in car seat and she needed me to watch him while she went in.
“C’mon it’s right up the street”.
I had no choice , really . My friend got a ride to help me bring it home and she would be here any minute.
I thought it was odd that this stranger would trust a random woman with her baby. But off we went.
She never stopped talking and had absolutely no filter. As we say now: ‘Cray’
We got to the bank and left me in car with it running and her baby inside. “We need to keep him cool”.
Yikes. I should have known this was not normal. But everyone seemed so eager to help, and thankfully baby slept.
We were back at dealership in no time.
Mission accomplished , papers signed and my room mate drove the car home. She loved it too.
I had my 1st lesson that afternoon and it went OK. I knew I needed practice on hills. So I met up with another friend who lived on a hill and I practiced parking, too.
Lots of stalling and re-starts ,,, and anxiety. But it was Saturday and I needed to get to work independently by Monday.
I even did a little night driving and was gaining confidence.
A neighbor (older guy we knew), showed me some tips and it was all good.
By Monday- I was ready. I gave myself an early start to avoid traffic and managed not to cause any accidents in my 12 mile drive.
All was good.. until the next weekend.
There was a 2 lane highway in my hometown that I always ‘tested ‘ my cars on. It was not a busy road… at all. And I knew the times when no one would be around.
It was a sunny day and I enjoyed the road test. The little Z had pep. I got it up to 100MPH and was cruising.
Then I saw the smoke from the engine. A lot of smoke.
I was on my way off the road, thankfully, and knew I had to drive until I could get to the 1st place to pull off that would have a phone. ( Pay phone.. It was the 80’s and we always had change).
It was scary.. but I made it to Mister Donut.
It was still smoking when the tow truck came.
The tow truck guy took a look and said ” This car has been sitting around for awhile and some of the wiring was old and dried out”.
A bad day and no answers til Monday,,I had to take a cab to work.
My father said ” I told you not to get that car”. ( I conveniently left out the detail that I had already bought it when I told him about it).
They fixed the car at no charge and it drove like a dream for the rest of the time that I had it.
It attracted a lot of attention and I gained a boyfriend who loved cars and did a lot of work on it.
The life of a young nurse could be fun. It was a time to take chances and enjoy life.
Maybe it was because taking care of sick people was serious business and when we kicked back.. we kicked back.
I Have Stories 