You've owned HOW MANY cars? Betcha I've got you beat...

I may have been conceived in a car (or an Airstream trailer), and I was damned near born on a train.  I've owned cars (and a coupla pick-'em-up trucks) since The Old Man gave me a $39.00, '39 Dodge pick-'em-up at the age of fourteen.  There's a list below.  I've technically 'had' more cars than that, since I worked for government agencies and private companies that leased cars for me to drive.  Only two of those cars are on the list, because I bought them when the leases were up.

THE CARS I'VE OWNED (vehicles in italics are the Luvly Laura's):

1956 - '39 red-'n-white Dodge quarter-ton pick-'em-up truck with a knuckle-buster shifter

1960 - '49 green and white DeSoto with Slush-O-Matic shifter

1962 - '52 white Jaguar sedan left-hand drive (bought for a friend for 30 days 'til he got the money together so he wouldn't lose it)

1962 - '55 Studebaker Champion (I did a really bad valve job on that one)

1965 - '57 MGA. (Rebuilt the front end and engine. Replaced about half the body panels, the wire wheels and the batteries)

1967 - '66 Plymouth Valiant *sister to the Dodge Dart*. (Stick shift, no AC and an undersized six-banger)

1972 - '72 NEW Plymouth Duster. (Shook like a virgin on her wedding night from 40 - 55 mph - finally replaced the drive-shaft & universal.  I began driving an agency vehicle acouple of years later)

1979 - '77 Dodge station wagon. (First car with AC. First automatic.  Heaviest car on the road at the time)

1981 - '81 NEW - Chevy Monte Carlo. First "2nd car" bought for Luvly Laura for real estate

1982 - '75 Datsun - (little bitty green car. replaced the Dodge wagon.  Died in a year, but it ran.)

1983 - '79 Plymouth Horizon (worst car I EVER drove).

1988- '86 Chevy Celebrity for Laura (gave Monte to son - Celebrity passenger side of the dashboard dug a trench in the knee of any person sitting there).

1990 - '90 NEW - Mercury Sable for Laura -(Dealer demo - Celebrity was dyin' - "Honey, the car is making a funny noise up front..."  Indeed it was!)

1995 - '90 Pontiac damifino - (Inherited from Mother-in-Law - Car died in '99)

1999 - '96 Lincoln Town Car. (Pontiac died on Monroe roundelay. I took over the Merc and bought Laura the Town Car).

2000 - '95 Chevy hatch-back (Mercury blew head gasket @ 82,000 for 3rd time)

2004 - '98 Stratus (Chevy died)

2008 - '03 Town Car for Laura (she wrecked the '96)

2009 - '93 Cirrus (Stratus on last legs)

What would YOUR list look like?

Glossary:

"Knuckle-buster shifter"  Floor mounted shifter with tall "stick" and a "throw" long enough to nearly hit the steel cowling of the dashboard.  Knuckles wrongly gripping the knob WOULD hit the cowling... mashed between it and the knob,

"Slush-O-Matic"  The most absurd transmission ever built.  The car had a clutch, and each time the car was started the clutch had to be used to run up through the gears.  Once you'd done that, each time you stopped at a light or something, so long as you didn't turn the car off, it worked like an automatic.  The car had a gear indicator like an automatic, but first gear wasn't on it.  I had a devil of a time getting that car moving for the first couple of weeks.  Then, one afternoon, I went to back up, looked over my shoulder, threw in the clutch, shoved the steering-shaft-mounted shift lever away from me and to the left... and bashed into the porch steps in FRONT of me.  I'd found first gear!  It was hiding BEHIND Reverse!  To get into reverse, the shift lever had to be pulled TOWARD one, and shoved left.