It all started for me with a Wren By Bird likely in 1958 or 1960 not sure which.
It was a 2 1/2 horsepower engine with a centrifugal clutch on a two wheel what we called then a "mini bike" which could do around 30 mph on the level. It's brakes were just a piece of metal that pushed up against the rear tire. So, it didn't have more than one gear and so at lower speeds it didn't have much power until you got up beyond 10 mph to 30 mph. This was my first motorized vehicle outside of bicycles I owned up until then.
I started out with a 24 inch Shwinn bicycle when I was 5 years old in El Cajon, California and ever after that I owned at least one bicycle.
The next bicycle I owned was also a Shwinn single speed bike with pedal brake and on this one I eventually put motorcycle handlebars and a riser on it so it was easier to stand up and pedal than to sit down and pedal this bicycle. This one was a metallic green in color and I used it to deliver the Glendale News Press door to door when I was 10 years old. The guy I eventually gave my route to and trained in the Newspaper route eventually became a good friend in Junior High School After I moved closer to Woodrow Wilson Junior High school in Glendale California.
When I moved closer to the Junior high I bought a Hercules racing bike which made it easier to ride my bicycle to junior high school because it was several miles away from where I lived even though I also lived only 1/2 block from Glendale High School Which I eventually attended also for my Sophomore and Junior years of High School.
After the Wren by Bird mini Bike
my first car was a 56 Ford Station Wagon that I called my "Surf WAgon" because I was a surfer. I bought this car when I was 16 years old from working as an electrician with my father summers since I was 12 years old and sometimes I worked afternoons after high school as an electrician too with my fathers electrical Contracting business when I was over 16. Then after college I also worked for 1 year as an electrician out of Hollywood too for a contracting firm that did work all over Los Angeles County.
The next car I owned my parents purchased for me which was a 1965 VW Bug that was seablue in color and had white leather seats. This I added a camber compensator (because earlier models of bugs often turned over if you turned too fast then.
Then in 1968 I purchased my 1968 Camaro which was a metallic blue in color with a light blue interior with wood trim.
Next, I got a 1966 VW because I wanted something less expensive to drive than the Camaro even though we kept the Camaro in the family for 10 years until 1978. So, sometimes I drove the Camaro too when I wanted that kind of experience.
But, for traveling and getting 30 miles per gallon I wanted my 1966 VW Bug and I think I put about 150,000 miles on that car within 5 years time so I traveled a lot all over California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and New Mexico with it from 1969 when I purchased it until I sold it in 1974 to move to Hilo, Hawaii with my first wife and baby then.
Eventually in 1976 my first wife and I purchased a Datsun (now Nissan) Truck which was a 1976 in Redding, California because we lived in Mt. Shasta then.
When we broke up and I was a single father then I left the Datsun Truck for my ex-wife and bought myself a 1976 Toyota Longbed SR5 truck and then eventually bought a cabover 6 pack camper for that one. It was also blue in color and served me well in business in the Contracting business then. The cabover camper allowed me and my young son to live anywhere I found building contracts to work on in California. But, most of the time we lived from 1977 to 1979 in San Diego or at the house my father and I built in Yucca Valley California. my father and I built this house in Yucca Valley so my mother and father could retire there in 1980. So, on weekends my father and I would often build this house from 1968 until 1980 when they retired out there to Yucca Valley, California.
However, also in 1980 I remarried and if you have seen how small the cab of a 76 Toyota Longbed Truck is you are only going to get maybe 2 adults and a small child at best in that cab. So, when I remarried my new wife had a 1971 VW Westfalia Camper van for her and her two children and I had the 1976 Toyota Longbed truck that comfortably fits only 2 adults and maybe a child if you are lucky.
So, she complained that we couldn't get all 5 of us into the toyota longbed which was realistic at the time so we wound up buying a stickshift VW Rabbit that was gasoline even though they also made a diesel version of this car that I eventually bought in the late 1980s when my son's truck was totaled with the insurance money for him to drive. The later diesel rabbit got 50 miles per gallon of diesel but it was the most gutless car I ever drove too. So, though you could get incredible mileage you often had to downshift to 3rd gear on the slightest incline which meant you couldn't get anywhere very fast.
But, the 1976 red Rabbit was a really fast car with a lot of power because it was a 4 speed stick shift high powered vehicle. We drove this vehicle as a family as far north as Banff and Jasper in Canada by the way.
I had an old surfboard rack that I converted for the roof of the Rabbit and I put a piece of plywood between the front and the back rack in place of where a surfboard goes and put a 5 man camping tent for a campground with a coleman cook stove that burned unleaded gasoline at the time and we camped from California all the way up into Jasper National Park in Canada then when the kids were still little with sleeping bags and the tent and stove on the roof.
However, it took me until this June of 2022 for me to get back to Banff and Lake Louise which is this beautiful turquoise colored lake in Canada. The Turquoise I found if from glaciers grinding up rock in that area so turquoise waters that Lake Moraine and Lake Louise have is more normal for that area of the Rocky Mountains in Canada.
The next vehicle I bought we bought in Oregon which was a 1974 International Harvester Scout II
This is what a 1974 Scout 2 looks like. We had a yellow one that had a 6 cylinder engine with a locked rear end which could literally push 2 to 3 feet of snow which was likely the best off road vehicle I have ever owned.
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