#dodgerambler

“joyride”

It was the early 70’s when my paternal grandparents, Henry & Jo, surprised my mother with a used black AMC Rambler. My father was constantly MIA, leaving my mother without transportation and the responsibility of two young children. Grandpa Henry wanted her to have a vehicle to make her everyday life easier and “just in case of emergencies”.

When I spied this old Rambler sitting in a New Mexico junkyard, just viewing the distressed chrome emblems & dashboard brought on a rush of misplaced, happy memories.

A joyride/road trip down HWY 51 to Horseshoe Lake near Cairo, Il., to visit mom’s sister, Aunt Karen, Uncle Russell & Cousins, Kim & Kathy.

I’ll never forget

the smell of the dashboard’s push-in cigarette lighter making it’s first contact with mom’s Tareyton 100’s,

hand-cranking the passenger window down to feel and play with the air’s resistance as we drove down the highway, laying on the front bench seat, watching the rhythm & repetition of power-line poles whizzing by while mom hummed along to music from whichever radio station we could tune in best.

This will forever be a good memory, the simple bliss of independence and quiet content.

#fromthearchives #nikond70 #50mm #april2006 #junkyard #amcrambler #amc #desert #alamogordo #newmexico #1970smemories #illinois