Next one - the XA Falcon wagon.

This is the car that sits right in the midst of my youth, the car that I remember the most and probably has the most childhood memories for me - mostly because it was while my parents had this car that I grew from being a little kid, to a big kid, and that's when you start to take interest in more than just the immediate things of your family.

This is the car that I remember having the caravan behind it, which means it is the one which has the most travel associated with it for me. It is the car that took us to many Model Aeroplane National Championships.
The memories are many and varied - from one drive to I don't remember where, when I was sitting in the very back of the wagon - no seatbelts there, but it was legal - or at least it wasn't illegal! Because we were a family of six, it tended to be a bit cramped sometimes in the two rows (3 front and 3 back) so sometimes I would sit in the cargo area in the back. This day I was back there with the dog(!) and I remember looking across sometime during the drive, and seeing a neat little lump of mincemeat sitting on the floor. Not realising, because I was just a kid, I asked mum why she had left some meat out of the esky. They asked some questions and pulled over to clean up where the dog had been sick!!!!!
Another time I remember sitting on the right hand side in the back seat - my oldest brother and sister must have been somewhere else. But I had my arm resting on the armrest, which in the old falcon had a hole in it which served as the grab handle as well. Sometime on the trip, I felt something on my arm and looked down to see a huge huntsman spider crawling through the armrest and onto my arm.
I let out a 'manly yell' (OK I screamed!!!) and ripped off my seatbelt and jumped right across the car into my brother's lap - Dad panicked thinking something was terribly wrong, and pulled over as quickly as he could, as I blubbered and gibbered like a madman on my brother's lap. He eventually figured out that the 'pet' spider that lived in the model plane club's first aid box had escaped and come out to say hi. They knew the spider was there, but could never seem to find him - but we did that day.

Must say, I still don't like spiders very much, although now I have an uneasy truce with them generally.

Much more happened with that Falcon, and it took us to most states of Australia, but that will do for now.

Ours was a colour that we called bronze - a metallic mid-dark brown.

The Old Falc.

The oldest family car I can remember was the old blue falcon - not entirely sure but, I think it was an XM falcon - wagon, in powder blue with a white roof.

Don't remember much about it, except we traveled a lot in it.

I guess I was still pretty young, and I think we got that when we got back from the Canadian sojourn.

In fact remember very little about it - but it is burned into my memory for some reason. It is the first car that I associate with model airplanes - when I was young my parents were into control line flying - a little bit of RC too, but mostly control line, and for some reason when I think of this car, it leads my mind to model planes.

This is one of the reasons why cars play such a big part in my memory in fact, because as a family we traveled to the national championships every year. These were held in a different state and town each year normally at Christmas time. This meant that I had been to every state but Tassie before I can remember that I hadn't - if that makes sense. As long as I can remember we had been all over the place.

And always by car.

I remember days driving in the Victorian countryside while Dad and his friends looked for a place to fly their R/C sailplanes - just driving miles and miles and miles, until they found a fantastic looking slope to fly from. Then they would find the homestead and ask permission - most would say yes - Including on one occasion Gus Mercurio - an Aussie actor (who we didn't make a fuss about - until we were well away afterwards!), and who was nice enough to let them fly on a slope on his property.

I think in fact we were driving the Brown Falcon for that one, but there will be more on that soon.

Anyway - ever since that blue falcon, I have been a Ford man - never actually owned one myself by the way.....

First car I remember?

I don't really remember it at all - but when I was about three my Dad was seconded from the Aussie Army to have a stay with the Canadian guys.
That meant a family trip to the good Ol' US of A, and a road trip.
You see the parents decided that since they were going that far, there was no way they weren't going to see some of the stuff, so we flew into LA - I think. I was only three.

Somewhere along the way we saw Disneyland, The Badlands, the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone National Park, and a lot of other places I am sure - sorry the detail is a little bit lacking, but I was only three.

We lived somewhere near Ontario for about 18 months - not sure exactly where, but I do know it was cold at least some of the time, and my mum still has the skate the bought for me - although now they wouldn't fit big toe - but at the time I was only three.

I'm not sure where we left from when Dad's time with the Canadians was up - after I was only.... you get the idea!

But I do remember one thing from that time.
The car that Dad and Mum bought for the trip was a Ford Fairlane compact.

That always makes me laugh, because there was 6 of us!
Just the concept of six in a compact is laughable - that's what we did with the little cars that we had in the last year of school - but that is for another day.

The thing that has to be kept in mind here is that we are talking AMERICAN COMPACT - and that has a totally different meaning to anywhere else in the world - especially in those days.

I assume it looked something like this:

But in fact I am not sure - don't even know what colour it was, or what motor it had.
The look feels about right - but what would I know - I was only......

I do remember being told that all six of us ( I am the youngest!) and all our travelling gear fitted into it.

That would be my earliest memory, and the most prominent thing from that is the Fairlane Compact - oh that and the fact that I have been to Disneyland, but can't remember it - as my OLDER sister delights in reminding me!

Have a good one,

Skelli.

She married me for my cars.

I often have said that I should write a book about the cars that I have known, loved, and at times hated, but always chosen with my heart.
I will, over time, list the cars and events that have punctuated my life, and share the stories of my cars.

I am sure that many people have far more interesting stories, but it seems that almost every memory of my life has cars somewhere involved.

Some people are car people, and some are not - you may remember all sorts of other things with your memories, but almost every memory I can think of involves cars in some way.

For instance - I remember the day I asked my wife's Dad if I could marry her.
We picked them up from the airport after they had just been to Bali, and drove them home - the thing is, we came in My wife's mother's 1973 Ford Fairmont (Which was dark purple with a white vinyl roof), and I was already nervous as, with the question that I had to ask that night.
We met them at the airport lounge when they came through the gate, went down to the carousel to get their luggage, which I then carried to the car, opened the boot, put the bags in, then went to hand the keys to my unknowing future Father-in-Law. He said, "No Dave, you drive home. I'm not ready to finish my holiday yet."

So, now I have the nervousness of driving the future in-Laws' car as well as the nervousness I already had.
I have never had a more nerve wracking drive - I was so worried about doing something wrong, somehow breaking the car, or -worst of all - getting some sort of ticket for speeding or something stupid like that.

We got home safely and without event, and after parking the car - also safely - and unloading it, going inside and getting a coffee for everyone, I asked to speak with him privately and asked him if I could marry his only dearly loved daughter. He said yes!

And we have now been married for almost 23 years!
But I will never forget that Purple Fairmont.

(This is not the right colour by the way - when I say purple, I mean a dark rich purply purple!)

Ah the memories.

More to come.

Skellibert.