This is a story about my baby, (no not my daughter)…lol. I was working at a factory called harmony systems at the time. My first car which was a cheapy pile of crap finally took a crap on me. I was on the lookout for another car. I needed on bad so that I would have a way to and from work, but all I had was $300. At the time I my neighbor (James) had told me that he was gonna take me out and help me find a car, he said we will find a car for me by the end of the day. So we hoped in his escalade and started on our car buying journey. We went to all of the buy here pay here lot in town, and not a single one had a car that could work with my down payment. So we moved on to Troy, which is the city next to where I live. Then we started going around there looking for a car. And finally after about 5 hours of searching we came across this one little car lot, which had two cars that were in my price range at the time. The two cars they had was a 1996 Dodge neon and a 1988 Chevy camaro.

The neon was $1500 and the camaro was $1750. I looked at the neon, it had everything a built in cd player, ac, auto everything. And the camaro was a 5 speed with manual windows, no radio, no ac, just a heater. Well it was a no brainer, I wanted the camaro and that was it, my mind was made. Well it turns out that James had already known these guys and he was also a good talker. So we went in and we asked if we could take it for a test drive. We started walking to the car and I handed James the keys, he just said “let me guess you don’t know how to drive stick shift?”. I told him that in fact I didn’t and that is why he was gonna get it out of the parking lot and test drive it for me. We went for a test drive and he pulled into another parking lot and said here you try. So we switched, and he told me make sure I take it easy cause the clutch was kinda touchy, as was the gas pedal. So I remembered from video games and watching people. I pushed on the gas and let out on the clutch, next thing you know I was doing a burnout…hehehe. But I still needed to learn how to pull away…lmfao. After I was done trying to drive we went back to the lot and James aimed the car so all I would have to do is make it out of the driveway and onto the road.

Well we went inside and I told him I wanted it. The guy said that for a car that was $1750 he needed a down payment of at least $500, my head went down. James looked at me and then looked at the guy. He said to the guy since the car has no ac and no radio how about I gave him $1500 for the car and a $300 down payment. At first the guy disagreed, but James eventually got it over to him and told him that instead of giving them $150/month for the car that I will give them $50 a week. Then finally he agreed. I walked out with a white title and $20 to put in the gas tank. I was happy as can be. The only thing left to do was figure out how to make it home without getting pulled over. So I got into the car and by some way of luck I had a smooth pull getting out of the drive way. But the rest of the 18 mile drive home was a different story. Every light and every stop sign was either stall, or burn rubber. I was truly surprised the clutch lasted the trip home.

Finally I get onto park ave. and pull up at home. Mom and dad were sitting outside having a cigarette, right as they saw James car pulling up they looked for me and found me. Dad looked at the car and just got a big grin on his face and chuckled and Mom got a worried look on her face. I was 19 and pulled up in a camaro. Well they came to look at the car, and dad and James were talkin about the trouble possibilities. And they were also making fun of my attempt to learn how to drive on the way home. Then James went inside after I got done thanking him and mom, dad, and myself all went inside. We talked for a while then they realized that I was still learning how to drive stick. So they advised that I go out into the country and get used to driving the car. So I went out and practiced stopping and going until I was able to pull away without stalling or burning rubber most of the time. A couple days later I got a ticket for “rapid acceleration of the tires on the pavement causing excessive noise”. Then one day I got into the car and the thing just wouldn’t move in 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd gear, it would only pull out in 4^th. Well James and I took the car to a lift and took the tranny out and realized that the dumbasses that had the car before me never put any gear grease in the tranny. So I had to buy a new tranny for $450.

Well I drove the car with no problem for quite some time then finally I got it paid off. And one year I got a really good tax return and thought to myself, well this car needs a few things done to it. So I went to James (which by this point he moved) and asked him about giving it a paint job for me. So we got the supplies together and he painted my car and made it look like a giant marble bowling ball. Then he tinted the windows for me. Then after the car was done being painted and windows tinted. He looked at the car and said that I really needed some rims. Cause all it had were the stock rims that looked not only ugly but were slightly painted. So we went out and picked me up some 15” Dayton wires and some new tires for them. And in the process of all of that we added new suspension and some engine upgrades.

Well the day came were I moved to Florida, and the car survived the 1200 mile trip down. And a month after I arrived I was following a friend to a movie theatre and got into an accident, hitting the back end of his car. That Florida ice was a lot slicker than I had thought it was. That was a very sad day for me and my baby.