Week 20 - Wheels - Conner family

Wheels......

Dating my (future) husband in High School he drove a 1965 Plymouth Satellite. A true hot-rod. Jacked up, glass packs, 4 on the floor. A nice rumble. I saw the car driving down Saginaw Road one time and thinking it was him I chased him down! To discover it wasn't him in the car but his mother! I was so embarrassed. And impressed that she could drive it.

My first car that I bought was a used 1970 Pontiac Firebird back in 1973. A super-chicken! I loved that car. It was blue with blue interior. Bucket seats and an automatic on the floor. Couldn't hardly put a jacket in the back seat but was sure comfortable in the front. It cost me $1,100.00 and the payments were $64.00 a month. That was a week's pay from working 40 hours at Dawn Donuts. 

I don't remember what the mileage was, but after we married in 1974, my husband drove it for a year, and then we traded it in for a 1973 Dodge Challenger.

Dan enjoyed the mantra, 'the faster, the better' and that worked great until we started a family. Then it was a 1979 Chrysler Cordoba. A family car.

Before that, he raced. Yes, circle track...dirt and asphalt. He and his racing buddy 'Crash' started with a 1969 Chevelle, then a 1965 Chevelle and then a 1968 Buick.  They didn't take a lot of checkered flags in #96, but they loved the roar of the crowd, the rev of the engines and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Way before he started to race, he helped his Uncle Doc race. And Doc's brother Charlie. A true family affair. Doc drove dirt. Lots of dirt. A 1936 Plymouth Coupe and then a 1963 Plymouth Fury - "Petty blue" in color.

Before cars, Dan cut his teeth on airplanes. With his dad Ken, and Uncle George, Doc, Norm, John...old school and awesome times. That generation flew airplanes, like we use cars today. Instead of a Sunday afternoon drive, they did a 'Dawn Patrol' to another town to an airport for a pancake breakfast. 

             Ken's J3 Cub

Wheels and speed.... it's in his DNA.

...but no matter the reason why,
we develop a sentimental tie.
to the metal and gears that we drive,
a connection that will forever thrive......Jarred Feign

Barbie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 32 - Wide Open Spaces - Prince / Bliss

Image
Uriah Bliss was the son of Jacob and Bethiah (Brown) Bliss, Jr. He was number seven in birth order of 11 children and one of seven that lived to adulthood. He was born 4 May 1803 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. When he was a young boy his parents and his siblings traveled from Massachusetts to Huron County, Ohio. The trip would have been by wagon and taken 4-6 weeks over rugged terrain only to arrive in an area full of dense forests that would have to be cleared, and a log home built. The Bliss family settled in the Firelands of Ohio. The Firelands make up over 500,000 acres of land in northernmost Ohio and was land given by the government to those who had been burned out by the British during the Revolutionary War. March 10, 1836, Uriah married Sarah Inscho in Greenfield, Huron County, Ohio. After the birth of their children: Pardon, Miles, Asa, Uriah, Jr, Caroline, Lucinda, Charles and Sarah the family pulled up roots and headed to Jefferson County, Kansas around 1854. They left behind t...
Read more

Week 42 - Fire - Conner/Graham

Image
Isaac Graham was around 19 years old when he immigrated from Canada into Marion township, Michigan to join his older brother John in 1862. The two brothers had purchased land using funds that their father had supplied. Land was becoming too expensive in Canada, so he had sent them to Michigan to settle. Isaac's twin brother Charles had come with them, but after a bad winter and getting sickly from working in the woods, he decided to go back to Canada. Isaac purchased 80 acres in what became the town of Deckerville in Sanilac County, located in the thumb of Michigan. He cleared some acres, planted an orchard and built a small wood frame home. In 1871 Isaac returned home to Taylor's Corner in Victoria county, Ontario, Canada and there he married Charlotte Harmon on July 17th.  During the year of 1871, there was a severe drought that ran from the Dakotas, across Minnesota and into Wisconsin and also included the state of Michigan. Following lightning strikes in the Dakotas, fires ...
Read more

Week 11 - Brick Wall - Porter family

Image
There are numerous brick walls in my family research, but the hardest one to find information for is Aaron Porter. Aaron (Arron) was my 3x great grandfather. Many would say, why do you want to know more? You are already into the late 1700's. But he was an explorer, a man who had a bit of wanderlust. I connect with that. Always wanting to see what is on the other side. Is it better? Or worse? Not contented until the answer is found. A typed missive from his daughter Minerva's husbands' side (Barrick) states the following information: Our efforts to trace the Porter line have been unsuccessful, through various sources, principally through Uncle Amos, we learned that Arron Porter was a native of Vermont, and his wife was a native of New York, Lovina Chapman, born near Lake George, they settled in Indiana, do not know the location where their children were born and where Mr. Porter died. We have names of five of their children – James (a bachelor) John Jay (I remember him and...
Read more