Mom shed a tear and Dad made the call. Yes or no to the 4-on-the-floor Mustang?
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Dad and I had just returned from test-driving a 1969 Boss 429 Mustang, and he was living the dream with me. It was the muscle car era of the early 70s, and this rocket could have qualified for the Apollo program. It was that fast. I was a rising high school senior and envisioned low gear and loud up the school driveway where the everyday ritual was watching souped-up cars enter, rumble, and maybe smoke some rubber. 429 hp at 17… what could go wrong?
Before John Wick
The test drive seemed a little odd. The “owner” we found in a Chicago newspaper ad was a bit hushed as he walked us to an alley and lifted the crossbar on a wood garage door. John Wick wasn’t a movie yet, but this was the model that he would drive. You can imagine my teenage excitement. Dad rode shotgun and I was left with the back seat… a pivotal position as it turned out.
The seller rolled onto Halsted Street, I think, slipped the clutch in a sec, floored it, and drove me spread eagle across the back window. Dad nodded his test drive approval; we returned to the secret garage and then talked about the Boss Mustang all the way back to the suburbs.
All of this was a little out there for our family. Certainly, Dad was not going to get suckered into something illegal… we’d deal with all of that later, I thought. I don’t know if the car was hot… never saw a title… but it was “hot.”
Mother’s Mustang Intuition
Turns out Mom was not so hot about our escapade as she was sorrowful. In our excitement returning home, Dad and I made a tactical mistake. Mom was a shift worker… and we woke her up mid-day to talk about the Boss 429. My dream of impressing high school guys and gals died in that sleep-weary moment. Mom exercised common sense, tearfully described my pending demise, and turned back to her husband to decide what should be done. Dad suddenly awoke from our car fantasy, and joined Mom in asking how could I possibly handle that much car? Dad taught me most of what I knew about cars… but that day I also learned when to say when.
I mourned my automotive loss a few weeks until, low and behold, Dad helped me purchase a 1967 Chevelle SS 396. We must have told Mom it was just a Chevrolet. Later in life I would drive a couple of Corvettes and a Camaro Z28, making me a Chevy man. But wait.
What Goes Around…
There is an inclination we have, it seems, to test the waters. Dad was not able to provide a childhood go-cart, never would allow for a motorcycle, and you know about the Mustang. Love my parents for sure, but I bought a motorcycle right out of school, and later a go-kart when our kids were (too) young.
Which brings us back to the Mustang. Ended up buying not one or two, but three of them for my girls over their early driving years. And I wasn’t even a Ford guy. It had to be some need to fulfill the expectation of that spread-eagle ride and day of thinking the most important thing in the world was going to happen for me. It wasn’t… and didn’t. What proved better was later giving… what Dad and I could not acquire that day.
On This Day
Maybe that’s the point. On this day, 62 years ago, the Ford Motor Company officially unveiled the Mustang to the public… April 17, 1964, at the New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. Sure, that car changed the fortunes of Ford to this day. And not attaining what my folks figured I could not manage worked out just right for this love-to-drive car man.
Slow That Mustang Down
Lest you doubt your parents’ wisdom, however, ponder this family outcome. Our “safe” driving daughter scratched the first Mustang. Our “hot foot” daughter lived to tell about totaling two Mustangs. Maybe mother always knows best.
Mom’s gone to glory now, but in the spirit of Mustang Momma, my wife oft reminds me… be careful what you ask for. You may get it.
