I was born in 1970. And my first car was a Gremlin. I paid $100 or so and my mom pitched in $100 or so. None of the gauges on it worked. Gas, speed, temp, nothing. No stereo either. But it ran!
I put a little tape deck between the seats and that was my stereo. Loved it. And people kept trying to buy it from me.
I had it for maybe 6 months, then I traded it for a 1980 AMC Spirit and paid $400 difference. That was 1990. Drove that car for about 3 years when the front wheel fell off and I had to get another vehicle.
Ahh... cars. Honestly, they are SO MUCH BETTER today than ever before. In many ways. Tires, for example... night and day. If you didn't experience tires prior to the mid 1980s, consider yourself lucky. I had so many blow outs and leaks it was crazy. These days? Very rare.
Anyway, here's a drawing of a 1970 Gremlin. I'll tag it "hot rod" because that's just what I'm gonna use for all car art posts. Which will probably be rare, as you know.
Some years back, I came to the realization that at some point I was no longer driving cars that I expected to just randomly break down for no apparent reason a couple times a year. That used to just be part of life!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I spent a lot of time in garages during the first 5 years of my driving life because I basically drove junkers. After that, I drove a few decent used cars. I remember the first used car I bought that was actually really good. It was a 1985 Honda Accord. Got it in 1994 and drove it until about 1999 or 2000. It was a really good little car. I remember being amazed that I rarely had to visit a shop.
DeleteGiven your love of the Gremlin, you might this little thing I bashed together about ten years ago. It was lightly playtested as a local con but the reception was not what I had hoped, mostly because it is a glorious mess: https://vlark.itch.io/receding-goblins-gremlins
ReplyDeleteDownloaded! Sounds fun. The carton of menthols was a nice touch in the teaser.
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