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A CAR STORY
A Mustang Story, But No Hoofbeats
Just the sound and feel of horsepower
Mustang -the word conjures up images of a galloping horse, free of rider and all restraints, racing across a field. Driving one wasn't quite the same. Rules of the road and traffic lights provided restraints for most drivers.
Mustang Sal, a popular 1966 song, tells the story of an independent woman who would rather drive her Mustang than settle for a domestic life as a wife.
And, coincidentally, my family nickname is Sally or Sal.
The Mustang was the second car in our marriage; the first was a small red Ford Falcon, essentially a means of transportation.
The Mustang was the dream sporty car we could barely afford on a teacher’s and a bank teller’s salaries. We lived in a third-floor walk-up apartment on a tight budget. It was the coolest car ever to my husband. He had to have it. The base cost in 1966 was around $3,000.
And it was a cool ride. Two years later, the Mustang was featured in the action movie Bullitt, with my era’s heartthrob, Steve McQueen, at the wheel chasing down bad guys in hilly San Francisco. We drove the hero’s vehicle.
During the week, I dropped my husband off at the bank where he worked and then headed to…
