52 Weeks to Personal Genealogy First Car

If you looked at the last post I did here you will see Gerald Madren as a witness to my parents marriage. Gerald and his brother Wayne owned Madren Brothers Studebaker dealership. Both my mom and dad had worked there at one time, but by 1965 Studebaker was on its last legs and had stopped making cars in the USA, they still were manufacturing them in Canada.
We went by the dealership often and one day in 1965 I saw a 1960 Ford Falcon sedan in the used car lot, so with my dad in tow we went and looked at it. Pop had been a mechanic for Madrens and knew what to look for in a used car. We asked for a test drive, and since the gas gauge showed nearly empty we pulled over to the gas pump Madrens had and added a dollars worth of gas (a little over 5 gallons). Pop had a route he tested cars when he worked for Madrens so off we went. The car performed well and so for $150 I bought my first car.
I took my sister for a ride and the gas gauge still showed nearly empty, so we stopped at a gas station and said fill it up. It took TWO gallons and the attendant wanted to know if we were just playing games. I said I just bought it and the gauge says it is nearly empty. That gauge never worked as long as I had it, so every 200 miles I would fill it up again.
It did burn a little oil so about 500 or so miles I would add a quart of oil. The first Falcons had a 6 cylinder engine the worked well, but if you did not change the oil regularly the oil port to the overhead valves would plug up and then you needed a lot of engine work. Mine had had good service so I never had that problem. The Falcon did have one problem when I got it, if you were in 2nd gear and let up on the gas to hold back, it would pop out of gear into neutral, so for a while I held my hand on the gear shift when I was in 2nd to make sure it stayed in gear. We finally pulled the transmission and fixed that, so I had a great running 1960 Falcon. I kept it about three years and traded it in on a 1962 Studebaker Lark. Got a $150 trade in. :) The Lark had a V8 and Disk Brakes and was a real going vehicle on the road.