My Dad And The '67 Mustang

Dad with one of my little sisters and two cousins.
The mustang is photo bombing in the back.

You know what I remember about my dad?
I remember he drove a very cool car.
A 1967 Mustang.
I remember the car quite vividly because of the story that was told many times over
about it's purchase.

Dad liked to walk to the nearest Car dealership and look at the cars in the showroom.
He had his eye on one particular vehicle.
It had been ordered by one of the salesmen,
and for reasons I do not know was instead for sale.

It had a special "Thunderbird" black leather interior
and had every bell and whistle possible;
Air conditioning being the most extravagant.

The Mustang was a beautiful light leaf green with a black vinyl top.
The day my dad wrote his last final exam for his engineering degree,
he walked out of the classroom and just kept on walking.

He finally stopped walking a good long while later,
when he was finally standing in front of the car.
He told us he had decided he wasn't leaving without the Mustang.
He didn't have an extra penny to his name.
It was the late 60's and the fact that he now had an Engineering degree
was enough to get financing.

My dad attended University several years out of high school.
He was a little older than the other students.
He had a wife.
He had a baby.
And now he had a '67 Mustang.

I don't know if my mother knew he would be buying it that day.
It wasn't exactly what you would call a family car.
But that didn't seem to matter.
It remained the family vehicle until well after we were a family of six.

I still remember being stopped by a police officer on a trip to our grandmas.
When my dad asked the officer what was wrong,
he just said he was doing a routine check.
I will never forget the look on his face when he looked in the back seat
and saw all of us kids plus a dog.
I guess dad didn't fit the typical profiling of a Mustang driver.

My dad and the '67 Mustang.
For me they will always be linked.
I learned a lot from my dad.
He showed me that sometimes doing the practical thing isn't always your only choice.
And that life can sure be fun when you throw in a few unexpected surprises...
especially... if they come with air conditioning.


xoxo,