Though only 12-years-old when this car came into my life it was almost entirely my choice of vehicle. I loved the Chryslers of my youth, enjoyed the sport model of the Dart that was driven by TV’s Mannix, and had major sway on my Dad who really knew nothing about cars (and truth be told, knew very little about driving them too).
I made every decision in the choice of that first car, with the exception of the colour. My mother chose that, which is why we ended up with the hideous hue with the equally hideous name of “Light Citron Metallic.” Depending on the time of day, season and climatic conditions it either looked green, gold, silver, lemony or light tan. This would have been a great colour for a getaway vehicle because no two people could ever describe it the same way.
But I loved that car and we had it for five years.
Which means it was the first car that I could legally drive when I got my license at 16 (oh, thanks to my Dad, I had already been driving that car regularly on the road for three years and have Super 8 film to prove it. Let’s just say it was a different time and leave it at that!)
But five years later we traded up to a more mid range 1975 Dodge Dart. Again, I had complete say on this deceptively fast family sedan with a .318 V8 under the hood. However, once again Mom picked the colour. Not wanting to beat around the bush with a choice that could look somewhat green (unless it was cloudy or dark outside), she went full bore with her favourite colour, which is green. (For the record, green is NOT my favourite colour. On the contrary, it is a colour I do not like at all).
