Early gearhead memory…in the summer of ‘68, our live-in nanny had a boyfriend who just got home from Vietnam and bought a brand new Roadrunner. I think it was orange and a 383 4-speed with no options, he was 20 years old and needed it to be as cheap as possible. I remember him telling us proudly about how he played one dealer against another until he got a bare bones deal on it.
He brought it over to show his girlfriend and we were all checking it out. I remember that my mom was trying to be polite but did not “get” it. Boy did I get it. When it was time for him to leave, I leaned my 8 year old head in the passenger window and asked him to “light ‘em up.” He pulled out of his parking spot on the curb and left 2 black stripes for 100 yards in our quiet neighborhood. I was giddy, my mom wasn’t.
