Do I miss my first car? Not only "NO", but "HELL NO". What an incredible POS, mainly because of past abuse. 54 Chevy 210 that I paid $75 for. Probably over paid.

Do I miss my second car (57 Chevy). Cried when I sold it, after having my driving privileges revoked. Yeah, I was that much of a dumba$$.

Not sure what cars are pictured in the back row, many Grand Am or Grand Prix?

What a cool period pic... "with a large crane".
Who woulda thought back then, that today, we could pull a drone out of our trunk, send it up with a remote control, have it take pics, send them to our phone and then post them to web sites ???

I wish I still had my '70 SS LS5 Chevelle. I do still have the engine in my '66 SS.

I guess I was a quintuple dumb-ass. I had my license revoked twice before I turned 18. Good thing MN wiped the slate clean at 18 and I started over with a clean record. Yeah, that lasted a long time... lost it 3 more times by 28 cause I was "having too much fun"...:dunno: Hence the reason I no longer had my LS5 after 1979.

Great picture, I'll show my friend that was a 1969 graduate, he got a GTO.

I've missed more from 2.5 years back than anything in the more distant past.

He will get a kick out of it for sure. In 1969, fast new Corvette's were the hot item at the Academy along with the fighter pilot mentality. Vietnam was in full force and fighter pilots and future astronauts loved getting new Corvettes. By the time I got there in 1976, the shift was to muscle cars and my class bought mostly 79 Z/28's and Trans Ams. Part of the recruiting pitch to go to the Academy was the ability to buy a new car your senior year. For a 17 year old kid, that was a big incentive. We got killer deals and discounted insurance rates too. Back then USAA insurance was mostly for officers or cadets at the military academes and many of us are still with them today.

I’m curious if you have any knowledge of whether your fellow classmates still own one of those original cars? Assuming you have stayed in touch with some of them.

Thanks for sharing

Not that I know of Mike. They were fun cars but not the best in quality in the late 70's as we know.

I also bought a 79 TA new. Looked very much like yours. The 400 4 speeds actually were available in 79, but they ran out of engines very early as they only had 5,000 or so. I bought mine very late in the year so I was stuck with the 403 auto. However, due to gas rationing, I was able to select from roughly 22 leftover TA's and paid $5,500 for a $10k sticker car. Black, camel, t-tops. Very cool car but you are absolutely correct that it made a terrible daily due to poor build quality and terrible gas mileage. Sold it after about 6-7 months for $8500. Nice profit for 1980. Bought a 78 280Z with the proceeds.

Graduated college and AFROTC in 1987 and spent 12.5K on a brand new '87 LX 5.0. First new car.