27. What Was the First Car I Owned?

My 1980 Datsun Sunny was the same as this car only beige,

I shared ownership of a few cars with my first husband.

a 1955 beige Hillman Minx

a 1955 white Morris Minor

a 1971 beige Austin Kimberley

a 1973 yellow Mazda ute

a 1973 ( or thereabouts) olive-green Leyland P 76

Then in 1980, I bought my own car. My husband’s grandmother lent me half the money because she didn’t like seeing her grandson travelling in the back of the ute. It wasn’t safe. But do you think my husband would take the ute and let me drive the P76 to pick up the kids from school? You are joking. The P 76 was his baby. He had all parts of the engine chromed as well as the footplates getting in through the doors and he’d polish them every weekend. My Datsun Sunny was the means to escape from that marriage. I never once regretted leaving.

Second marriage and 4th child, the Datsun Sunny was no longer big enough and my new husband’s Toyota Corolla panel van certainly wasn’t, so we traded both in on a Ford Spectron 7-seater van. From there we went to a white Mitsubishi Express van and had seats fitted in the back. It wasn’t until 1992 that we got a proper sedan — a 6-seater ( bench seat in the front) bright blue Ford Falcon that I got personalised number plates. I still have them.