I know you want to hear about it, don't you? The Dodge Aspen of our youth??Well, we had just moved. My sister and I were at that teenage age when appearance REALLY MATTERS. Our family vehicle had passed on at a ripe old age, and we were getting a new one. (Using the term "new" loosely.) My sister and I dreamed of coming home from school one day, to find a shiny new cool set of wheels in the driveway. Quiet comments of "tight budget" from my parents didn't register.
One day we came home...and there it was. A burgundy Dodge Aspen with 4 wheels, a weird smell and not much else. In cold weather, the passenger door wouldn't latch until the car was toasty warm (which took a long time). We had to thread a scarf through the door handle to keep it from flying open as we rounded corners. We learned the value of a seatbelt in that car!
Jeff and I were getting married, we needed a vehicle. Got a powder blue Ford tempo with no weird smells or stains. However, a few weeks later we noticed a weird white cloud emanating from the rear of the vehicle each time we started forward. Cracked engine block I think, and a less than honest previous owner. Don't remember what we did with it, but driving it was not an option.
Days before our wedding, we got a phone call. We could buy a Toyota Corolla for a dollar. It needed some body work....One of the doors was rusted right out. We called Jeff's cousin who muttered something about never telling anyone that the body work was done by him, and he went to work. Pulled out a pizza box - I kid you not - and bonded it to the door. Fixed all the other holes and we were good to go. It was the ugliest looking vehicle you ever saw, but it was dependable, and probably is still running today, 15 years later.
