My first car

… and guess who’s stopped at the light – Aunt Mary and Aunt Angelina!

(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
Joe was the first one to get a car among his friends.  So obviously they all jumped in so they could get away.  Joe’s first car was a VW Beetle convertible so it common that the roof was down.  It was the Fall of 1964 and Joe had just gotten his license.  One “property” of the VW Beetle was that it had a manual transmission and Joe had not gotten used to working the clutch, the brake, and the gas.  So off we went with a full car, Joe, Tony, Frank and Billy. I’m not sure who was where but I know Tony and a least one other person was sitting on top of the back seat on top of the folded down convertible cover – not a safe place to be – especially with a new driver.

So we are in Woodbridge coming from Pfiefers Blvd over the short bridge and making a very sharp left turn onto Rt. 35.   Well, Joe didn’t realize that when you put your foot on the clutch, the car actually speeds up when your coming over a hill.  And that’s exactly what happened. As I reached Rt. 35 the car was moving too fast to make the sharp left turn, there were cars waiting at the light on the left.  Before you know it the car is out of control, Tony and the others rapidly came off the top of the seat into the seat, and the car begins to fish-tail from left to right.  It becomes perpendicular to the car’s waiting at the light and guess who’s in that car?… Aunt Mary and Aunt Angelina!!!  Well, Joe got the car under control and went on with everyone scared silly from the adventure (and keeping off the top of the seat! ).  Somehow we were able to keep Aunt Mary and Aunt Angelina from telling my dad.  But to this day it’s something we’ll never forget