Wednesday, December 26, 2007

My First Love

I just saw on of these cars driving up Broad St., and it instantly took me back in time. I was fresh out of High School, and was looking around Toledo for a car for college. I wound up inheriting the old Buick Skyhawk, but I will never forget when I saw one of these in my searching...

It's called an Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV. Great little cars, about the size of a Honda Civic. I remember spying it in the back lot of a local Buick dealer. I must have spent the better part of a weekend walking around and around it. I called the dealer to inquire, and was told the car was a '74 model, was owned by the daughter of one of the salesmen, hadn't been run in at least a year, and the price was $7000 firm. Ouch. On $3.35 an hour as a bagboy at Kroger, the price might as well have been a million. It was completely out of reach.

I still went back a few times to look it over, and eventually noticed that it was sitting on a halo of rust, as it slowly disintegrated from neglect. I realized it was probably my luck that they didn't make a reasonable offer, as I'm sure the upkeep costs would have quickly turned the love affair to hate. But still...what a cool car. And they only look better after all these years.

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