For John Z and Erin....

Well, I have a huge box of photos and slides in my storage locker, and I'm sure I could find a shot of The Beast in there somewhere. But I just couldn't get to it in time. So I scoured the 'net for a picture of a lime-green 1976 Chevette like the one I drove, and actually found two. One is someone's actual car, the other is from a 1978 sales brochure. Here they are. The top photo is actually much closer to the color of my car than the sales brochure.





At the time, my family was just about broke, and when our '66 VW Beetle died, this was all we could afford. One of the most obnoxious pieces of machinery ever turned out by the Chevrolet Motor Division, but it carried my sisters and I a long, long ways. Taught me more about auto mechanics than I ever wanted to know, too...

There are lots and lots of very good reasons that these cars are not being produced any more. They were underpowered, overweight for their engine size, and it is the last car that anyone in our family ever owned that didn't have air conditioning.

But it took a whole lotta abuse, and like a Timex watch, it kept on ticking. (For the most part.) And it sure was easy to find in a parking lot. Or a snow storm...

But this is just one more place I'm glad I'm not, today...