Nostalgia

My first car as a junior in high school that I bought (if you can call it that!) with my own money was a 1983 red Honda Prelude. Here is an image I found on the Internet: And here is a Honda add for the Prelude. I laughed when I read it.

First of all, my car was NOT new when I bought it. It was about 12 years old. Secondly, I don't think there was much precision in my car! :) And by the time I got it, it was definitely not this pretty. It had peeling paint (the guy I dated in high school called it "the chameleon"). In the mornings, even though it was an automatic, I used to have to shift between the different drives to get it to accelerate. It no longer had air conditioning (unless you count low: one window down; medium: two windows down; high: two windows and the sun roof open). But if you had the sun roof open, you better make sure that it didn't start raining because you had to hold the button with one hand and push it closed with the other...yes, I had to pull over a time or two! I don't think the speedometer worked very well. The person who sold me the car taught me how to "judge" my speed by the rpms. I guess it worked, I never got pulled over. Until I looked at these pictures, I had forgotten the pop up lights. Although if I remember correctly, my lights no longer closed.

But did I mention it was all mine. A friend of my mom's sold me the car, so I paid $50.00 into a savings account each month for the car. And I paid the insurance and gas. I loved this car! I will always remember it with fondness. And when I see one on the road, which I did the other day (the prompting for this post), I miss my first car, even as I sit in the "luxury" of my almost 4 year old car.