|
Tom Brody (1969)
This is to respond to Question Number 11 (Comment #1104) from Sue Ferreira, "What was your very first car you bought ???" My answer is this: Silver hatchback 1980 Toyota Celica. I needed to buy it because I had accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where the job was to perform experiments on vitamin K. I had just finished graduate school at U.C. Berkeley, where my work was on another vitamin, folic acid. Both jobs (at Berkeley and in Madison) paid less than minimal wage.
Anyway, there I was at the Toyota dealer on Shattuck Ave. in Berserkeley. We had agreed on a price, and then we walked over to sign the papers. The dealer (a middle-aged man with blue eyes) mentioned the price again, but he was sneaky and had increased the price by FIFTY DOLLARS. And so, I wrote a check for about $7,500 to Toyota Berkeley. At that time, I was thinking of towing my belongings in a trailer, and so I paid $70 to have TOWING HITCH attached to the chassis. I had this done at some place on San Pablo Avenue. FORTY YEARS LATER, I bought a car from my wife from the same Toyota dealer on Shattuck Avenue for $20,000.
But then, I realized that it would be stupid to tow a trailer filled with furniture and record albums over the Sierra Mountains and over the Rocky Mountains, and so I called a moving company instead. But I'd already gotten the towing hitch attached. During my first winter in the midwest (this was in 1980), one night I was visiting with my friends from work (Arnie and Ellen). After the little get-together, Ellen said, "Watch out for drunks on the road." And so, I tried to start my car but the motor would not turn over. (This is a frequent problem in Wisconsin, when the temperature outside reaches minus fifty degrees F.) Using battery power only, I drove to the corner of a nearby street and parked by the curb. The next morning, I called a tow truck. The tow truck inserted a hook into my TOWING HITCH, and used this hook to assist in towing my car to a repair shop. And so, that is the HAPPY ENDING for the towing hitch that I put on my new Toyota.
|
.png)
