Good lord, how can a teenager afford to fill up the tank on a Blazer?! I remember back in the day when along with my first car, Bob and Jill gave me a Unocal 76 gas card … that they paid for. I had no sense of the value of gas until that card was taken away from me. (And since I was hanging out on Marine Drive all the time, it didn’t take long for that card to get taken away. I was filling the tank 3x-5x a week!)

Michael doesn’t fill up the Blazer, my brother David’s teenage adopted son, Patrick does. It’s got a huge tank.

Carol, how can ya’ll afford to fill up the ‘72 Blazer? At least if there’s a EMP over Portland, it’ll still run. lol

Is Michael’s insurance sky high because of all of the totals? I pretty much totaled my ‘98 Jeep two years ago, but nobody was held as fault, so mine didn’t budge (thankfully). Of course the reckless driving ticket I got two weeks before caused it jump up quite a bit. (As well as my blood pressure when I found out that reckless driving goes on your criminal record).

I lead such a sheltered life.

While on all our trips to Las Vegas, we were ‘test driving’ cars, trying to rent something different every time, and when we got an Alero, we knew it was what we wanted. So when we went to the dealer, there was no haggling or shopping we already knew what car out of all of them in the Northwest that we wanted. We just wanted a dealer to get it to us. They failed in their attempts at ‘internet buying’, so we had to drive to Bellingham WA to pick it up ourselves. (We rented a POS Mercury Mystique to get there.) Then from there we drove right into Canada for a weekend trip. Nice car for road trips.

It’s paid for, and I’m going to be sad when we have to replace it. The 72 Blazer is still in daily use, so I guess we could have the Alero for another 18 years, assuming Michael can manage not to total it. I’m sure either the government will outlaw non-hybrid cars, or Michael will get the hots for a new car, and the Alero will be put out to pasture, but I’m personally in no mood to buy a new car.

I do remember that our keys were interchangable. I also rememeber that Porshe that you sometimes drove. The one with the coat hanger “exhaust support” assembly, and the seat belt warning lights that would turn on when you went around a corner.

Nothing like learning how to drive a standard-shift in a car like that. If you took your foot off the gas, the engine would die, which made for real fun stops on hills in Oregon. Left foot = clutch. Right heel = brake. Right toes = gas. I used to drive 15 miles out of my way to get to school to avoid a few intersections where the possibility of “killing it” (and rolling backwards) was present. Ah, … good times, good times.

Carol, how was it jumping from an ‘81 to a new car?

Michael, … I remember when you totaled your Colt. Doesn’t seem that long ago. Weird.

Dan, … I’m going to write off your “Celebrity” experience as West Virginia peer pressure. lol

Nothing was ever traded in. Totally skipped the ’90’s.

Jason - I know you used to drive a mustard yellow Datsun B210 . . 72?