If it can't cut grass it can't live with us!
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
United States
May 3, 2017 8:40am CST
The photo is of my husband's first brand new car - it was a 1969 Chevy el Camino. Yes, he bought it brand new in Longhorn, PA. He traveled all over in that monster stick shift truck. When I met him in 1997 the car was in primer and kept in a garage. He only used it once in a blue moon.
He picked me up in it once and I told him don't ever do it again! LOL! The el Camino was not a comfy vehicle to ride in and the way he shifted I thought my neck would snap! The car stayed in prime until his aunt died. She left him a little bit of money and I told him to use that money to get it painted or it wasn't moving to Tennessee with us. Needless to say it got painted.
Everyone who saw that vehicle wanted to buy it but it wasn't for sale. When we bought our previous home with 10 acres to take care of I told my husband, "It can't cut grass, it has to go!"
Of course since we wanted to sell it no one wanted to buy it.....finally we found a buyer but it sure didn't fetch what he thought it would. But it did get enough for us to buy a new fancy top of the line Cub Cadet with a few bucks left over.
I know he hated to part with it, but he also knew that it was beginning to rust and it needed to go. The photo was taken the last time we used it - for a Christmas Parade in Dandridge, Tennessee over 11 years ago. People kept going up to him saying things like, "My grandfather had one just like it." That made him feel a lot older than he was LOL!
PS: I did drive it once, but even with the seat all the way up I could just barely reach the pedals!
Photo belongs to Abby.
14 people like this
15 responses
@LadyDuck (502489)
• Italy
3 May 17
My husband has finally sold his sport car last year. We almost never used it and we had the problem to recharge the battery every time if we planned to. I know he hated to sell it, but as he turned 70 and the risk not to be allowed to drive a sport car again was very high, it was not too hard to make him take the final decision.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
We didn't use this one and we were paying insurance and license etc on it and I 'hated it'....
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502489)
• Italy
3 May 17
@AbbyGreenhill Exactly! The insurance was not cheap, then there was the annual check at the federal office the 50$ ticket to use the toll road... wasted money, as we used the car no more that three or four times a year.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
@LadyDuck At the last house we didn't have a workshop like we have here. His workshop was in the basement and that's where he kept the car. So every time he had to bring our car or the tractor in for work he had to move the el Camino out and it was pain in the neck. It took up room. We didn't have a huge basement since half of the house was over a crawl space due to the fact they didn't want ot spend money to blast the rocks for a full basement.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
4 May 17
I think they were attached at the hip for years LOL! But he knew it was time to say good-bye.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
4 May 17
@JudyEv My husband lost his youth way before I met him LOL!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382104)
• Rockingham, Australia
4 May 17
@AbbyGreenhill Vince always says I made him sell his youth which was a motor-bike but really it was his decision.
1 person likes this
@Hate2Iron (15724)
• Canada
3 May 17
LOL... I remember an El Camino... my dad had one and he loved it too. There was nothing that he couldn't load in the back lol!!
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
Yes, it was a workhorse for sure. He had super air filled shocks put on his so it could carry a house if it had to LOL.
@LeaPea2417 (40029)
• Toccoa, Georgia
3 May 17
That is such a neat looking car! I love old cars like that! I am sure it hurt for him to part with it. I still have sad pangs at our 1988 Ford Truck, my husband and I bought new and drove for 22 years. We sold it in 2010, but what was sad was that it was the first automobile my husband and I bought in our married life together, and it had good memories that went with it.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
This vehicle was bought right after he got married the first time. It was 'their' first vehicle.
1 person likes this
@shivamani10 (11035)
• Hyderabad, India
3 May 17
I think your husband might have felt a lot to dispose of it.
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (68246)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
3 May 17
The other half and I have a friend who has that years model, looks exactly the same except his is green. lol.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
They only came out in a few colors and this was the that color new.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
4 May 17
Yes it did from a distance....up close you could see a lot of bumps - we got a cheap paint job, but it was all we could afford at the time
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
5 May 17
@minx267 LOL, I assume the guy who bought it had it redone by now - he had several of them, therefore he had the bucks to fix it right.
1 person likes this
@silvermist (19701)
• India
3 May 17
@AbbyGreenhill That car looks nice and neat.
1 person likes this
@amadeo (111937)
• United States
3 May 17
@AbbyGreenhill No I have not.Some of my friends did.Not me.
@PainsOnSlate (21845)
• Canada
3 May 17
Its like a walk back into history. I had one like that too although I don't remember it being uncomfortable and mine was a car not a truck..... Its trunk was big enough to hold all our camping stuff. After that I started buying - vans, Dodge Caravans. Have had a lot of them and still do love them.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
The el Camino was classified as a truck - the registration etc. said it was a truck. Uncomfortable due to leather seats and no seat belts - you slid all over the place. He had a/c put in and the thing ran so cold you could make ice cream in it...that's why it was uncomfortable.
There was a regular car around that time that looked a lot like it.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
It was the bow that made it look good LOL!
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
@Courtlynn That was the original color of it when he bought it.
@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
3 May 17
@AbbyGreenhill maybe. The color helps too ;)
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
3 May 17
Oh that's a nice car. My first car was a 1978 Chevy Monza bought brand new off the show room floor. It cost 4200 and gas was like about 55 cents a gallon. Ahhhh those were the days.
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
They don't make a tank like that el C any longer (thank God!) But it was built to last that's for sure.
1 person likes this
@ilocosboy (45155)
• Philippines
3 May 17
it's a collectors item so everyone want to have it. It's cool.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
3 May 17
I the south there are so many of them because cars old up better in the south. They aren't worth all that much unless they are really in show room condition.
@Happy2BeMe (99353)
• Canada
3 May 17
My fiance had one but sold it before i met him. He regrets selling it.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
6 May 17
always sad, but understandable, hard to have something with so little use, no matter how cool it is!
