Thanks for the great story and the laugh Bill. That must have been one hair raising ride. ________________________________ From: Bill Roddy <billroddy@cox.net> To: norcal@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, May 31, 2010 8:47:46 AM Subject: [NORCAL] My first car. It was a model A Ford roadster. I bought it in Watsonville in 1942 for $55. I was 20 and working at KHUB radio as news director. The manager gave me that title because he only paid me $15 a week. I lived at the YMCA for $2.50 a week had a $5 meal ticket at a Slovenian restaurant. The owner always gave me extra helpings because my grandfather's name was Raicevich. On my first trip home to SF I took my mother and aunt for their first ride. My aunt in the rumble seat. At the end I took the Duboce street hill down to Castro. Big mistake! By the second block we speeded up in spite of the fact I had down shifted to second. The brakes wouldn't stop us. At Castro I swerved to the right and saw a bus headed our way. I just missed it at the last minute. We got home to Herman St. and my mother and aunt had a glass of sherry and laid down. Alone I took the car back to the Castro hill and went down in first gear with no problem. My confidence returned. Bill PS I just renewed my license at 88. The DMV examiner saw my cane and asked me why I used it, but he passed me. ----------------------------------------- NORCAL ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. ----------------------------------------- To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to NORCAL@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message