by B. L. Babb

Created on: August 09, 2008

Long, sleek, and dark green. You couldn't miss this car coming down your area. She was a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville with her original paint job in excellent condition.

Having spent most of her life in the heavy snowfall of Minnesota, it was no surprise that she seemed to sit a bit lower than most.

Rear fender-skirts that covered 1/2 the tire and increased the sleek look.

Inside there was plenty of room for six people, without anyone sitting in the lap of another. Chrome push-button AM radio in the dash.

The engine was a 389 (which caused grief each time I attempted to purchase parts as the parts counter person would always say "Pontiac didn't put a 389 in this model/year car"). Well maybe not, but for certain that was what was in it!

I was driving through our tiny town one day and parked a spot in the center of the road (cars passed by front and back, parking was angled in between the lanes) when the horn began sounding! I ended up pulling the wire on the horn. When I got back home, I popped the horn button off (it was about 4" dia in the center of the wheel) and found one of the springs that returns the cap back out had cocked and was grounding the system through the button. I stood the spring back up and reattached the horn wire; problem solved.

Before reporting to my first naval duty station in San Diego my Dad had twin glass pack mufflers installed. Drop the car into low gear, a light step of the gas pedal and the throaty rumble would sound from the back.

Her 26 gallon gas tank always had sufficient gas to get you wherever you were going. Driving between California and Arizona in comfort with the window down (no air conditioning in this one) was always a joy.

It had wing windows that cranked open on each front door. I had to replace one when kids busted it to gain access to my cassette tape collection at my Chula Vista Apartment. Fortunately a junkyard had what I needed. In 1981 parts for a 1966 Pontiac were already in scarce supply.

It began around Christmas in 1981. I was driving down the pier past my command. There were tugboats on the driver's side and a long maintenance building along the right. Ahead of me, one of the base's "trash pickups" was parked across the parking spots parallel to the road (instead of in the slots head-on as they were painted."

A trash truck is a pickup with two platforms (one each side) where someone rides at the back and steps off when the truck stops to pickup whatever trash the driver has spotted.

As I moved past, the driver of the

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