Hi folks -- this is a photo of a much younger and hairier me in the Spring of 1970 with my 1966 Mustang, as I was driving through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park with my new bride, Kaye. Note the blue sneakers, which I guess I must have thought were cool at the time, but looking back from the present they sure appear geeky. I purchased the Mustang at the end of the summer of 1968, and drove it down to Davidson College in NC. I had worked hard during that summer at the Carborundum Company in Niagara Falls, NY, and flush with overtime money, bought the car for $1600 at Ibbotson-Ritchie Ford in Tonawanda, NY. It was a simply appointed car -- 6 cylinder engine, three speed manual on the floor, with a radio but no air conditioning. Yet, it was one of the very best cars that I have ever owned. It took me to college and back, including through one memorable Christmas snow storm. It was the car in which Kaye, my wife to be, pulled off the radio knob on our first date, an action that irritated me considerably despite her good looks and pleasant attitude. It never failed me, always looked good, and while it was certainly no speed merchant, the Mustang was simple, rugged, economical and dependable. What could one ask for more than that? It pulled a trailer with our worldly goods after graduation from Davidson. Unfortunately, it was smashed on a snowy side street in Rochester, New York, during the Christmas of 1970. I have never thought about it until now, but with the end of the 1966 Mustang in my life a far darker and more difficult period began, one that I often try to forget. In 1991 I purchased a 1990 Mustang convertible that I owned until 2007, and again it was a great car that has left me with many good memories. And perhaps another Mustang will enter my my life in the near future. Will it be a convertible, or a Bullitt fastback?
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