Cars In My Life - 1950 Jeepster Convertible

1950 Jeepster Convertible In-line 4 3-Speed Manual

When I got to the Altoona Campus of Penn State in 1957 I needed a car to get around. Mom had taken over the Mercury, so they bought me a Jeepster. This was a sort of cross-over vehicle between a Jeep and a regular convertible car. The top was manually operated and there were canvas side curtains, no windup windows at all. The car owed much more to the Jeep than to a car. It was very spartan. It had a very small four cylinder engine that only put out 40 horsepower. It was very cold in the winter, the side curtains didn't fit snugly and the wind whistled in while the car was in motion.
I got Moon wheel covers for it. These were spun aluminum covers that were screwed to the wheels of the car. I don't think I had them for more than a week when they were stolen.
In my last year at Penn State I replaced the four cylinder engine with a V-8. What a disaster that was. I drove it to my first job at IBM in Endicott, New York. The car didn't last long at all. Actually, neither did the job.

Cars In My Life - 1953 Mercury 2-Door Hardtop

1953 Mercury 2-Door Hardtop V-8 Automatic

The Plymouth was definitely not my kind of car. I wanted something a lot better looking. The Mercury was the first car that I had a say in the purchase. There were two very similar cars available; one orange and tan and one green and yellow. My dad insisted the green and yellow was the better car, but I was in love with the orange one. My parents bought the one I wanted even though my father objected. I still think this is one of the prettiest cars I ever owned.
I put electric windows in it myself. That was a real challenge but I got them installed.
The car had a sort of loud muffler. In those days the Pennsylvania State Police were very strict about the level of noise that cars made, especially ones driven by kids. My Mercury seemed to pass the noise test, because I was never harassed for the muffler.
This picture was taken on the property of Dr. Lorenzo Runk in the Curtis Park neighborhood of my home town, Philipsburg, PA.

Cars In My Life - 1942 Plymouth Deluxe Sedan

1941 Plymouth Deluxe 4-Door Sedan In-line 6 3-Speed Manual

My first car. My parents bought it for me for my 16th birthday in 1953. I had to wait to drive it until I passed the Pennsylvania State driving test. I passed it on the first try. That is a story for another time.

The Plymouth was a large car, you could sort of walk into it and sit down. The problem was it was way underpowered. It was definitely not the best car for central Pennsylvania where I was born and raised. Too many hills. The windshield wipers were vacuum powered and when the car was struggling to get up a hill the wipers stopped working.
The car had vacuum assisted shifting on the column mounted shifter. It made for very short throws from gear to gear, but the car hissed every time you shifted. I liked to sit at the traffic light in my home town and shift back and forth between second and third gear. It made the car sound like it was breathing.
The previous owner had replaced the factory shift knob with a very heavy chrome plated one. When the car was in second gear, all you had to do was put in the clutch to shift gears. The knob was so heavy that the lever dropped from second to third gear by itself.
The Plymouth had an after-market radio in it. It was a Motorola radio and was mounted under the dash. At night when we were riding around we could get stations from far away cities like Buffalo, New York. That was where we first heard rock-n-roll music.Life was never the same again.
This is the only picture I can find of the Plymouth. I think that is Mom driving it and we at my Grandmother Booth’s house on Second Street. It is obviously winter what with the coating of mud and road salt.