My First Car
My first car
was not one I owned but rather one that my dad let me drive, a 1973 Chevrolet
El Camino. It was a company car he had
purchased for a Public Relations representative to promote his health club
business. Mr. James Waller, a retiree
from Pittsburgh Paint, drove it proudly around town handing out free passes to
strangers who might come and try out the exercise program. After trying it, the hope was for my dad to
sell them memberships. My dad had
magnetic signs made to adorn each side of the vehicle to create a moving
billboard. “Continental Health Club
located in Western Plaza” with a phone number and a muscleman symbol comprised
the white signs with black lettering.
By the time
I inherited the car to drive, Mr. Waller had passed away, and the position was
never filled again. After all, no one
could have filled the shoes of Mr. Waller, who my dad had recognized as everyone’s
grandfather and a personable promoter. I
was in high school when I began driving the 1973 El Camino. I started driving when I turned 16 in 1976. I “learned” to drive when my dad took me to
the local West Town mall in the El Camino on a Sunday morning when the mall was
closed. The parking lot was absolutely
bare. He had me turn left and right a
few times then said “okay, drive me home now”. I was terrified. I later went on to take a driver’s education
class in high school.
The summer of
1977 I drove it to my first job as a summer day camp attendant for Knox County. It was a pilot program where parents could
drop their children off with me at Bluegrass Elementary School. We had access to board games and a kickball
field. I had kids from kindergarten
through 5th grade to entertain, without a bathroom, from 10 am-3pm! I remember driving up to the school in the
El Camino with Waylon Jenning’s “Luckenbach, Texas” playing on the radio. I suppose I removed the magnetic promo signs
at this point. My dream job, or so I
thought, was to work at Cracker Barrel in the summer of 1978. I did accomplish that goal but hated being a
waitress and only lasted 3 weeks.
Instead, I found a job at Captain D’s fast-food restaurant where I
worked as cashier and drive-through attendant.
During my first quarter of college in fall of 1978, I commuted 8 miles to
campus and drove this vehicle back and forth daily. This is when I fell in love with it. It was so light in the back and would
absolutely fly and steering it only required one finger. I always took the backroads, and thinking
back I wonder why I never ended up in the cow pasture! Those rural roads were narrow and had no
shoulders and were curvy and hilly. I
surpassed the speed limit everyday going to my classes. After that initial quarter at college,
however, I chose to move to a campus dormitory because commuting/parking was
not ideal, and I wanted to receive the full college experience of independent
living.
Back at home
in the summer of 1979, driving the El Camino, I worked at Shores Market on
Northshore drive, ironically, I took the same road I took to get to
campus. The market was a convenience
store with a deli/food counter and gas station.
I sold a lot of cigarettes and beer and made a lot of sandwiches and
fried chicken & potato wedges. I
learned to make change, check id’s and watch a man drain the hose of the gas
pump into his car every time after the pump cut off. Funny how certain memories stick with you. In the fall of 1980, I took part in a co-op
program and was hired to work at Powell Manufacturing Company in Bennettsville,
SC. My Dad and I drove there in the El
Camino; he got me settled in and flew home.
I rented a room from a lady, Margaret Rogers, and experienced the
culture shock of a lifetime. I lived
across the street from a tobacco field in Marlboro County. I worked as a draftsman for Powell, making
changes to their blueprints. Powell was
a manufacturer of tobacco harvesting equipment.
I was born and raised in Knoxville, TN and living in Bennettsville was
an education in itself, but that is a story for another day. The co-op position, however, confirmed to me
that agricultural engineering was the right choice of curriculum for me.
Because I
spent the fall and spring of 1980 in Bennettsville, I had to attend college
classes in the summer of 1980. Now I was
living with my parents in a home on the lake which was 16 miles from
campus. They had moved while I was in
Bennettsville in the spring of 1980. I
despised going to summer school but still enjoyed “flying” the El Camino down
those rural roads. It had an exceptional
air conditioner! I only spent two
quarters as a co-op student and in fall 1981 I was back on campus again. It is worth mentioning, however, that in the
spring of 1980 on my second 10-week stay in Bennettsville, my dad insisted that
I take his BMW 530i to Bennettsville instead of the El Camino. I did so, but being naïve I did not know I
was driving a luxury car. In this little
town of 8,774 people, with a black population of 48.6%, this choice of vehicle
being driven by a 20-year-old young lady brought quite the attention to
it.
The El
Camino was a sparkly emerald, green color with a bench seat and essentially was
a 2-door car with a truck bed on the back and a 350hp, V-8 engine. There was a
white pleather-looking snap-on cover that I could use to hide the truck
bed. I drove it home from Bennettsville
at Christmas of 1980. By now, I really
considered it mine, since it was my dedicated ride. I paid my car insurance. I took pride in it and kept it washed and
waxed. In the summer of 1981 when I
worked for Digenova’s Pizza, a local pizza place owned by Dan Digenova, he talked
me into putting a Holley carburetor on it.
When it needed tires, he advised me to put retreads on it.
I went back
to school for my senior year in the fall of 1981and graduated in December of
1982 with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering. I was only the third female at the University
of Tennessee to receive this
degree. I worked again in the summer of 1982 for
Digenova’s Pizza and continued to work there after I graduated. I searched for a job while driving El Camino
to the pizza restaurant. I ate pizza
every day for months and never grew tired of it. When I finally landed a job, in August, it
was with the USDA- ARS in Florence, SC, just 40 miles south of
Bennettsville! At that point, I was
expected to buy my own car, which I did.
I purchased a 1981 Toyota Corolla, 4-door, 5-speed stick shift in July
of 1983 for $6500. My dad refused to
co-sign the loan for me (on principle) because my starting salary was so high,
by his estimation. My dad, in turn,
sold the El Camino to Margaret Rogers’ daughter, Ellen in McColl, SC, just NE
of Bennettsville. Why didn’t I just buy
El Camino from my dad? I really don’t
know. It was never really my car,
but for years I got to use it as if it were!
I drove to Florence, SC in my Toyota Corolla, as owner of my first car, and
began my job there on August 21, 1983.
On August
28, 1983, in Florence, I met my husband to be.
We dated for a year and a half before marrying on May 25, 1985. During our dating time, he found out my car
loan interest rate was 12% because there was no co-signer, and immediately he
paid off my car!
Tammy Harvey 8/2/2026
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