This post is inspired by a photo in a post courtesy of fellow blogger Tam over at View From The Porch.
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| Promo shot from "Smokey And The Bandit" |
My Mom loved that movie and Burt Reynolds, and REALLY loved that car. She kept telling my Dad
she wanted one for Christmas. This was decades before Lexus made that a thing. My Dad never
said no, but kinda the "we'll see about that" type of vagary. Then came Christmas morning.
At the end of the opening of presents, my Dad hands my Mom a small gift wrapped package
containing a velvet covered jewelry type box. Inside was a brand new set of GM keys. My Mom's
eyes got as big as dinner plates and she actually squealed like a little girl. My Dad told her to go
look
in the garage. Sitting in the garage where my Mom's car normally was
sat a brand new Trans Am. Unfortunately for Mom, it was an 8" long
plastic toy car version. Dad had her car moved to the
neighbor's house the night before when she wasn't looking, and had the
keys made up at a dealership. Instead of being mad, Mom knew it would be
impossible to afford the real car and loved her present. That car sat on her desk at the bank until she retired. I don't know what ever happened to it, but I know she treasured it until her death in 2010.
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| Not the exact version, but the closest photo I can find of the one Mom received |
The fact that Mom didn't actually receive the real car probably extended her life a good 30 years. You see, Mom was a VERY aggressive driver, and when she was driving Dad left his fingernail marks in the dashboard. She would have pushed that car hard, emulating her idol Burt from the movie, I just know it. It would have shortened her life in the same way handing a 16 year old kid that just got their license a brand new high performance 1100cc sport bike would.
Hey Mysterious Blogger;
ReplyDeleteThe appeal of "Smokey and the Bandit" which was filmed where I went to High school at btw. Showed the backlash against the "Nanny State 1.0 and Jimmy Carter and his "55" administration that tried to tell people how to live. Back then, most people had sand and basically told them to "stick it" but now after several generations of being programmed at the public school level, most people are ok with the government telling them what to do. That was an excellent prank played with love by your Dad.
In 1979 I was a working bodyguard for a gentleman in Honolulu. He had a special garage with his multi-car collection and it actually contained one of the TransAm's used in the movie. His 16 y-o son wrapped it around a freeway column. After that I don't know where it went. It waS FUN TO DRIVE.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post immensely. I’m one of those lucky few who actually owned a 1980 Black & Gold Special Edition Turbo Trans Am. The exact same car as in the second Smokey and the Bandit movie. It was a graduation gift from my father in 1980. GOD, did I ever love that car. Kept it for 7 years. Put 170,000 miles on it. Then got married, took a job, and had to buy something more practical and reliable, so I sold it in 1987. It was a sad day to see it driven away, but I still have a lot of good memories of that car.
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