Dennis Kirban
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2009
As some of you probably know if you get our weekly inner circle, my Dad who is 83 years old has suffered several strokes and is under hospice care. My parents reside about 2 1/2 hours away from me and I have been making the trip every week or so to see him. My brother and I try to comfort him and talk about some of the good memories from my youth. Some times it makes him cry and sometimes I can get him to laugh. Now his time is becoming short and he is only awake for a few hours a day and his voice is reduced to a whisper that is hard to understand.
Although, as a reader of this thread we may be of different ages and generations it would be interesting to read a story of your youth related to your Mom or Dad or by a relative that raised you, some good memory or memories that has stayed with you as you have grown up. I have several I will share in this thread.
This first one is kinda of long. Most of mine are car related.
Here is one story I will share with you from my teenage years. I had started to work for my Dad at around the age of 13. I would run addressograph machines and also inserting machines. I saved my money to buy my first car at age 15. It was a used 1956 Oldsmobile coupe that my Mom drove for me. Problem is it blew up before I reached the driving age of 16.
Dad said you have to buy a new car not a used car to avoid getting burned a second time. (I have gotten a lot smarter since those days!) Dad said he would co-sign for me. It was the summer of 1963 as I would turn 16 that September. Naturally I wanted a Corvette, but Dad would not consider it. Ford just came out with a 1963 1/2 XL model fastback. I bought a black one with a red interior. After my deposit the monthly payments were I think like $99 a month which even back in 1963 was a lot of money. The car was around $3400 if I recall. Keep in mind I was not 16 yet and still in school.
I got my license within the first week of turning 16. I was in 7th heaven. I went to a small school as the entire 10th grade I was in had less than 100 students. My car in the school parking lot was the newest car there. At the time my Mom drove a 1956 Caddy coupe and my Dad had a 1962 T-Bird.
By early November 1963, as you can imagine my grades had dropped to the point where teachers where sending notices home. Dad announced that I would no longer be permitted to drive my car to school.
It was a Wednesday night he gave me that stern lecture. I handed over the car keys. Unknown to him I had a second set of car keys. As a teenager you do impulsive things without giving it much thought. That Wednesday night I planned to run away the next day. ( We lived near Philadelphia, PA.) At the time my Moms Dad was living with us so that morning I borrowed $20 from him and took off in my 1963 Ford. As usual I went to my girlfriend's house that morning to take her to school as I always did. I told her my plans and of course she tried to discourage me. Thank goodness in looking back I did not complicate the problem and ask her to go also! (She was just 15 at the time).
I told her not to tell anyone. My parents simply assumed I disobeyed them and took the car to school. This gave me over a five hour head start. I started to travel south with no real plan or much money. I had maybe $50 with me. Keep in mind back then gas was around 30 cents a gallon. After reaching Maryland I decided to swing west as I knew a girl in Indiana.
I made it to her house that night and had dinner with her and her folks. I knew once I left they would call my parents. I then continued west and picked up what has now become one of the most famous roads in America, Route 66.
Its now Friday November 22nd,1963. A day that all of you will remember if you were alive back then as President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas. I remember it distinctly also, as I was driving through downtown St Louis, Missouri and the newspaper delivery trucks were yelling the news to people along the sidewalks. (No internet back then).
My funds were running low so I picked up two hitchhikers along the way that help pay for gas. By the time I was rolling into Oklahoma City one of the hitchhikers was getting on my nerves and I was trying to figure out how to leave him somewhere.
Luck was with me as he wanted to stop at a laundromat and wash his clothes. While he did this I simply took off. Unknown to me he called my parents and said I robbed him of his stuff so my dear sweet mother wired him $100. (I had told him who I was at some point during the trip in conversation). I was not the brightest kid back then!
So, now at this point Dad had figured out I was travelling on Route 66. Since the car was registered to my parents and myself he informed the police the car was stolen.
In Amarillo Texas I stopped at that famous steak place but only could afford the soup. This place gives you the steak free if you eat I think a 64 ounce one by yourself. (SInce then I have stopped at this steak place and had a small steak).
It is now Saturday morning I am alone and quite tired. About 10 miles outside of Gallup, New Mexico I pull over on route 66 to rest. A cop pulls up notices my Pennsylvania plates and my young age and next thing I know I am arrested and taken to the Gallup New Mexico jail. My parents are called. My Mom of course is glad I am alright and my Dad was hard to figure out how he felt.
He said to me it would be a few days before he would fly out. Jail is not a pleasant experience even though I had a private cell. Dad comes late Monday doesn’t say much. He arranges to have my car shipped back to home by train in a box car.
Tells me that the car will cost me $550 when it gets back home sometime in December. He gets both of us a plane ticket to fly home first class and hands me a itemized bill for airfare and his time.
I don’t remember the exact figures but it was around $1800 on top of the cost to get my car back. We get home late that afternoon and I ask my Dad can I go see my girlfriend? He hands me the keys to his T Bird with these words “Don’t go that far again!”
The next day at school I am like a hero among my classmates. Teachers on the other hand gave me zeros for every day I was gone. Since I was doing poorly before, zeros added to my problems and I ended up that next summer attending summer school for Chemistry in order to pass into 11th grade.
My Ford? About a week prior to Christmas we got word it was being unloaded in Bath, Pennsylvania and we could go get it. I got to drive to school from that day forward until I graduated.
Fast forward: About every 5 years my parents and I would joke about this experience when the date rolled around. Maybe 8 years ago on a trip passing through Gallup, New Mexico in my Corvette I searched out the jail. A new jail exists so I inquired as to where the jail was back in the mid 1960s. After getting the address and discovering it was now a parking lot I stood on that paved lot and on my cell phone called my folks and told them to guess where I was.
I think I made it a lot easier for my younger brother and three sisters as I probably gave my parents the most problems in my youth. My dad sure handled this event differently than most Dads would have handled it since child abuse phone lines were non existent back then! It took me over year to pay off my Dad for the expenses incurred. True Story!
Post one of your fond memories from your youth related to your parents.
denniskirban@yahoo.com
Although, as a reader of this thread we may be of different ages and generations it would be interesting to read a story of your youth related to your Mom or Dad or by a relative that raised you, some good memory or memories that has stayed with you as you have grown up. I have several I will share in this thread.
This first one is kinda of long. Most of mine are car related.
Here is one story I will share with you from my teenage years. I had started to work for my Dad at around the age of 13. I would run addressograph machines and also inserting machines. I saved my money to buy my first car at age 15. It was a used 1956 Oldsmobile coupe that my Mom drove for me. Problem is it blew up before I reached the driving age of 16.
Dad said you have to buy a new car not a used car to avoid getting burned a second time. (I have gotten a lot smarter since those days!) Dad said he would co-sign for me. It was the summer of 1963 as I would turn 16 that September. Naturally I wanted a Corvette, but Dad would not consider it. Ford just came out with a 1963 1/2 XL model fastback. I bought a black one with a red interior. After my deposit the monthly payments were I think like $99 a month which even back in 1963 was a lot of money. The car was around $3400 if I recall. Keep in mind I was not 16 yet and still in school.
I got my license within the first week of turning 16. I was in 7th heaven. I went to a small school as the entire 10th grade I was in had less than 100 students. My car in the school parking lot was the newest car there. At the time my Mom drove a 1956 Caddy coupe and my Dad had a 1962 T-Bird.
By early November 1963, as you can imagine my grades had dropped to the point where teachers where sending notices home. Dad announced that I would no longer be permitted to drive my car to school.
It was a Wednesday night he gave me that stern lecture. I handed over the car keys. Unknown to him I had a second set of car keys. As a teenager you do impulsive things without giving it much thought. That Wednesday night I planned to run away the next day. ( We lived near Philadelphia, PA.) At the time my Moms Dad was living with us so that morning I borrowed $20 from him and took off in my 1963 Ford. As usual I went to my girlfriend's house that morning to take her to school as I always did. I told her my plans and of course she tried to discourage me. Thank goodness in looking back I did not complicate the problem and ask her to go also! (She was just 15 at the time).
I told her not to tell anyone. My parents simply assumed I disobeyed them and took the car to school. This gave me over a five hour head start. I started to travel south with no real plan or much money. I had maybe $50 with me. Keep in mind back then gas was around 30 cents a gallon. After reaching Maryland I decided to swing west as I knew a girl in Indiana.
I made it to her house that night and had dinner with her and her folks. I knew once I left they would call my parents. I then continued west and picked up what has now become one of the most famous roads in America, Route 66.
Its now Friday November 22nd,1963. A day that all of you will remember if you were alive back then as President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas. I remember it distinctly also, as I was driving through downtown St Louis, Missouri and the newspaper delivery trucks were yelling the news to people along the sidewalks. (No internet back then).
My funds were running low so I picked up two hitchhikers along the way that help pay for gas. By the time I was rolling into Oklahoma City one of the hitchhikers was getting on my nerves and I was trying to figure out how to leave him somewhere.
Luck was with me as he wanted to stop at a laundromat and wash his clothes. While he did this I simply took off. Unknown to me he called my parents and said I robbed him of his stuff so my dear sweet mother wired him $100. (I had told him who I was at some point during the trip in conversation). I was not the brightest kid back then!
So, now at this point Dad had figured out I was travelling on Route 66. Since the car was registered to my parents and myself he informed the police the car was stolen.
In Amarillo Texas I stopped at that famous steak place but only could afford the soup. This place gives you the steak free if you eat I think a 64 ounce one by yourself. (SInce then I have stopped at this steak place and had a small steak).
It is now Saturday morning I am alone and quite tired. About 10 miles outside of Gallup, New Mexico I pull over on route 66 to rest. A cop pulls up notices my Pennsylvania plates and my young age and next thing I know I am arrested and taken to the Gallup New Mexico jail. My parents are called. My Mom of course is glad I am alright and my Dad was hard to figure out how he felt.
He said to me it would be a few days before he would fly out. Jail is not a pleasant experience even though I had a private cell. Dad comes late Monday doesn’t say much. He arranges to have my car shipped back to home by train in a box car.
Tells me that the car will cost me $550 when it gets back home sometime in December. He gets both of us a plane ticket to fly home first class and hands me a itemized bill for airfare and his time.
I don’t remember the exact figures but it was around $1800 on top of the cost to get my car back. We get home late that afternoon and I ask my Dad can I go see my girlfriend? He hands me the keys to his T Bird with these words “Don’t go that far again!”
The next day at school I am like a hero among my classmates. Teachers on the other hand gave me zeros for every day I was gone. Since I was doing poorly before, zeros added to my problems and I ended up that next summer attending summer school for Chemistry in order to pass into 11th grade.
My Ford? About a week prior to Christmas we got word it was being unloaded in Bath, Pennsylvania and we could go get it. I got to drive to school from that day forward until I graduated.
Fast forward: About every 5 years my parents and I would joke about this experience when the date rolled around. Maybe 8 years ago on a trip passing through Gallup, New Mexico in my Corvette I searched out the jail. A new jail exists so I inquired as to where the jail was back in the mid 1960s. After getting the address and discovering it was now a parking lot I stood on that paved lot and on my cell phone called my folks and told them to guess where I was.
I think I made it a lot easier for my younger brother and three sisters as I probably gave my parents the most problems in my youth. My dad sure handled this event differently than most Dads would have handled it since child abuse phone lines were non existent back then! It took me over year to pay off my Dad for the expenses incurred. True Story!
Post one of your fond memories from your youth related to your parents.
denniskirban@yahoo.com
