The year was 1983. I had just taken a job in ad sales for a new Hampton Roads city weekly called PortFolio Magazine. While I was optimistic about my new employ, I was recovering from the failure of my own city monthly called the Bay Area Review. For the previous year I had slaved 24/7 in an effort to make the publication work. Not only had the experience taken an emotional toll, but financially I was exhausted as well.
I was driving a 1972 Opel 1600 that had seen better days. Most distressing, it lacked air conditioning. In a sales position, you need to arrive at a prospect's business alert and refreshed. As we were coming into the humid summer months, the need for a new car became apparent.
As I mentioned, I was broke. But I never stiffed anyone and my credit was still good. I visited my old friends at Cavalier Ford (I was a salesman there in summers during college break) and laid out the cards. I drove away in a new dove gray Ford Thunderbird. The Thunderbird was completely redesigned in '83 and it turned heads. Breaking from the square look that it, and most other cars on the road, had previously embraced, the new 'Bird made everything else on the road look 10 years old.
My 'Bird had a 232 cid Essex V-6. But it was the style that hooked me. The rounded corners and slopping lines married to an egg-crate grille was about as fashionable as you could be in '83.
I suppose it sounds shallow, but that car did more for my self-confidence at the time than anything else I could have envisioned. Hey, you are what you drive, right?
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