With all the uproar over the attempt to take choice away from the individual any control over healthcare decisions, where else is the nanny state taking away ii individual controls? These are just some current perspectives about how far we have gone the road to group think. [continue reading…]
My first car was a Corvair, purchased in 1967 when I was stationed at Fort Shafter Hawaii during the Viet Nam War. The purchase was a big decision on my part, the first major purchase of my adult life. My parents were very protective and normally intervened with whatever I proposed to do (and to be fair, I was a willing protectee). Getting drafted out of graduate school lifted me out of my dependent lifestyle and left me on my own, 3,000 miles away from my support system. In Hawaii, I had money of my own (not much to be sure but enough to buy a car) and so I decided that I needed a car to provide mobility. I even got a job at the base library to provide more funds. (The picture is not my car and we never saw snow in Honolulu.)
I did not know very much about cars and had no one to advise me so I went to Aloha Chevrolet to see what I could afford. What I could afford turned out to be a blue four door Corvair which freed me from the limits of the base and opened the entire island of Oahu for exploration.
I loved that car right up to the time it was totaled as I returned late one summer night in 1968 from a movie at Hickham AFB. It was a four way stop on Nimitz Highway.
There was no traffic except for Betty T who plowed into me as I attempted to get through the intersection. Neither she, nor I was seriously injured but it was the end of my Corvair. Nearing the end of my tour, I didn’t replace it and had to abandon my plans to buy stereo gear with the proceeds of selling it since the insurance companies considered it only fair to screw a short time soldier. I had to retain a lawyer and return several years later to get any settlement through the legal process.
The Corvair has received a bad rap. I always thought it was a classy looking set of wheels (for a subcompact). It was using oil by the time I got it but that’s not a major problem when you don’t drive much. My Corvair served me well for the year that I had it and I will always remember it fondly.
Rot in hell, Ralph Nader.
The picture is the only one I could find of a four door corvair although mine never saw any snow. And for some other reminiscences about Carlson cars past go here.
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