Mopar Memories -- yarns spun, stories told!
Tales of '62 to '65 Mopars that got away; that stole our hearts; that burned vivid images in our mind that still pleasantly shock us today....
Personal reminiscing
1962 Dodge Polara Convertible
John Bass writes:
I was a sophomore in high school about 1964/65 and had been driving the ugliest green Studebaker Lark that was ever built. My brothers and I pushed that car more then we drove it. My father understood my problem (yeah right, that and a lot of complaining) and had promised me a new car for my junior year. We went to a car lot in downtown Austin, Texas and found two cars that I liked, the 1962 Dodge Polara (which I had never heard of) and a 1963 Chevy Impala. Well the Impala had a dent and I think the dealer wanted too much money for it. So the 1962 Dodge Polara became mine with a sworn promise to my dad to make the payments. (I think I paid between $1500 and $2000, not sure of the cost, but I do remember paying $34.69 per month for a long time.)
My Dodge, as seen in about 1966/67 in front of my then girlfriend's house.
I was about 17 at the time.
What a great car; a red convertible with a black top, red and white interior (front bucket seats that folded all the way forward, great seats for the those private moments after the real date and before the porch light starting flashing), a 361 cubic inch engine, with a big Holly 4 barrel carburetor, 3 speed on the column, and an AM radio that took forever to warm up.
How I grew to love that car! The first summer I owned it I drove my parents and brothers to Oklahoma City, OK. What a mistake, we suffered in the heat because there was no air conditioning, but that did not matter to me I was driving a red convertible and felt on top of the word.
My junior year I met my first real girlfriend and she fell in love with me and that car. We went everywhere and any place that Austin had to offer. I can still remember driving down the "drag" next the University of Texas with the top down and feeling the wind through my hair. My girlfriend was sitting on the console between the front bucket seats as close as she could get to me. We went to the drive-in movies and sat on the back row to watch the latest James Bond movie, we hung out at the local Holiday House hamburger drive-in for cokes and French fries after the movie to visit with friends. Nothing we do now compares to those feelings.
In September 1967 I was off to college driving my trusty Dodge packed to the door jams. I drove that car back and forth from Austin to Stephenville, Texas almost every weekend to visit my special girl. I put a lot of miles on that car and it never let me down.
In 1969 I married a girl I met at college and we moved to Longview, Texas. I still had that beautiful 1962 Dodge Polara. That car made so many trips between Longview, Austin, and Snyder Texas (her home) that I lost count. After our son was born we moved back to Austin in 1970 and six months later I received my draft notice. I sold the car to a friend for $400.00 took my family to Snyder, Texas and left for the Army.
Two years later my mother received a call from the police that the license plate for the 1962 Dodge Polara had been found in California. She told them that I was in the Army and had sold the car right before joining. We never did find out how the license plate got out to California or what happened to the car.
Before I sold the car I took the spinner hubcaps off and gave them to a college friend who had admired the car. This year, 2001, I sent him an email asking if he still had the hubcaps and if I could have them back. Sure enough he had them and he sent them back. They are now hanging in my garage waiting to be put on another red 1962 Dodge Polara convertible. So those feelings of freedom and the wind through my hair can be recaptured.
Do you have a story about a 1962 to 1965 Mopar that you previously owned?
How about a story about one of these Mopars that somehow changed your life and made you fall in love with these beauties?
Or how about suggestions for links to other web sites with historical references and stories about these years' Mopars?
Send me a note and it will get shared with everyone viewing this page!
Thanks for contributing!
Gary H.
June 7, 2001
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