Hi folks -- I need to backtrack a bit concerning my auto-biography (and I hope you are working on yours!). Before I owned cars, I experienced them largely through my family's vehicles. The first car I remember is a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster, a black two door. It is funny how our mind goes back to memories from long ago, and how those events shape what we do today, including our decisions about cars in the present. And those memories I have of that '48 Chevy are as clear to me now as what I remember of breakfast this morning.
Because my family was so wrapped up in WWII and its consequences, we didn't not have a car when I was born. Indeed, my father rode a bicycle to work from Tonawanda to Niagara Falls, New York for several years, and then after having a worn-out car or two that simply was not very good, he bought a used 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster. It was a car that served us well, and with one exception, my father bought Chevrolets for the rest of his life. I remember so well the interior of that car, which was actually a top-of-the-line model for that year. 1948 was the last year of a body style that actually went back to 1942. 1949 marked the first true post-war Chevrolet. The '48 Chevy that I remember had la plush interior, with cloth that felt like velvet. It was big and comfortable, and more than once on a summer day I took a nap in the front seat when my parents were shopping with my legs hanging out the window. I had regrets , however, that our car did not have a radio, or turn signals, and wanted them so badly for whatever reasons, probably because my friend's family cars had these features. This car was as reliable as it could be. But another thing I remember was the early mornings on the coldest of winter days in North Tonawanda when my father actually had pulled the spark plugs and had heated the electrodes on the kitchen stove, I guess to get the car started! Perhaps it worked, but I have never heard of that practice since I witnessed it as a child.
It was a plain,black car, but it put the Heitmann family on the road once and for all, and for that I am grateful.
Because my family was so wrapped up in WWII and its consequences, we didn't not have a car when I was born. Indeed, my father rode a bicycle to work from Tonawanda to Niagara Falls, New York for several years, and then after having a worn-out car or two that simply was not very good, he bought a used 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster. It was a car that served us well, and with one exception, my father bought Chevrolets for the rest of his life. I remember so well the interior of that car, which was actually a top-of-the-line model for that year. 1948 was the last year of a body style that actually went back to 1942. 1949 marked the first true post-war Chevrolet. The '48 Chevy that I remember had la plush interior, with cloth that felt like velvet. It was big and comfortable, and more than once on a summer day I took a nap in the front seat when my parents were shopping with my legs hanging out the window. I had regrets , however, that our car did not have a radio, or turn signals, and wanted them so badly for whatever reasons, probably because my friend's family cars had these features. This car was as reliable as it could be. But another thing I remember was the early mornings on the coldest of winter days in North Tonawanda when my father actually had pulled the spark plugs and had heated the electrodes on the kitchen stove, I guess to get the car started! Perhaps it worked, but I have never heard of that practice since I witnessed it as a child.
It was a plain,black car, but it put the Heitmann family on the road once and for all, and for that I am grateful.
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