Speaking of vintage photos...
If any one has photos or stories about their "VERY FIRST CARS...PLANES...N TRAINS that you have owned!
Dig through your old albums...scan and send a few this way..TODAY?  

Guess I'll start the memory train....with the photo of my very first car.

I can't remember.  My did owned a car repair shop, and was good friends with the local garbageman.  I was #4 of four kids, and when I was growing up our rides were a never-ending stream of rebuilt tricycles, about which we were never told "take care of that, it has to last!!".

Never had a pedal car, but my cousin did.   Did have a tricycle that I had to share with my sister.   Then I was given the old Schwinn my brothers had passed down thru them, all three.  It started life with a gas engine that drove the reart wheel.  Finally I got the family Ford.  two door coupe that I drove all  over the country causing all kinds of mayhem.   Then I think I grew up a little with a 55 Ford 2DR hardtop V-8.

My first real bike was a gift from my granddaddy. A Black "Firestone Flyer in red n orange trim" that he bought during wheat havesting time in Wakeeney, NW Kansas.  
My grandfather Joe Osborn bought this for me...so that I could drive 3/4 a mile up an old dirt road to the main gravel road to pick up the mail each day...or deliver messages or to the Wheat combine crews...during the cutting of the wheat.
LET'S LIFT UP THOSE FOLKS  IN OUR THOUGHTS, PRAYERS...THAT ARE STILL LIVING IN THAT SAME HORRIFIC WIND AND TORNADO'S TORN COUNTRY....ALL OVER THAT MID WESTERN PLAINS COUNTRY IN THE PAST COUPLE OF DAZE DAYS!

Amazing how the memories about that region came back to haunt me...of those many many trips to the storm shelter carved out in the basements of our rental homes...during these  formative years my twin sister and I spent in Kansas wheat county.

American Flyer Silver Comet.
Thimble Drone Little Stinker.
Pontiac Tempest Lemans convertible.
14' Sea King with a 40 HP outboard.
Cessna 150 Aerobat.

no motorcycle.

Nice post Dennis..BIG WHEELS STILL RULE...EVEN WITH THE NEW GENERATIONS OF GRAND KIDDIES!
Any chance digging some nice old photo..from your Dads old albums...or photos from his childhood. It would be great to see some scans of these photos.
My son RYAN LIVED TO STYLE N PROFILE ON HIS BIG WHEEL!

First bike: about 1953 Schwinn (single speed). Developed legs and wind to stay with, and better than, an English 3-Speed a friend rode while we pedaled our butts (hey, that's pedaled, not peddled - we're guys - it ain't street hookers, okay?) all over Brooklyn, NY, in the mid-/late- 1950's. Day excursions over 25 miles were rare, but not that uncommon. In NYC traffic...

First car - a $15 1948 Ford Anglia (8HP by the British licensing stupidity of the day - considered number of cylinders and piston diameter.) Never licensed for the road after we (bicycle buddy, a cousin and I) started pulling ugly, heavy pieces off it, in eventual hopes of hanging a fiberglass body on the chassis. Turned out there WAS NO chassis, just a "keel" from which the various body pieces provided the rest of the supposed "structural integrity.(?)" (1948, remember: Dagenham UK was still rebuilding from that Hitler Unpleasantness.) Drove it up and down the Grandparent's driveway many times... (they had a garage, we didn't.) Learned that you do not put your thumb t'other side of the crank (no starter motor) when pulling it into life. What's left of the Anglia - the engine block - is still mooring a boat somewhere around Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, NY.

Never had an American Flyer set-up - Lionel all the way! 2-track and 3-track...

Hot Wheels were barely invented in time for our son to get some time on one before Kindergarten. Never had a pedal-and-metal pedal car in the family...

Family never had a car until I was old enough to drive: - NYC in the 1950's! Parking (even then) was a hassle when someone invented alternate side of the street parking so the street sweepers could pretend to keep things clean. Several interesting stories about using mass transit to get from home to a flying site... Even remember riding the jump seat on a friend's MG-TC (actually the ragtop stowage area) with a field box and a couple of stunters hanging out in the breeze...

... And, when I was using occasional diesels, telling my flying buds NOT to flip the prop, NOT to mess with that "windup-key" on the cylinder head. ...Not on the Subway, anyway... Learned about that AFTER a bud (we divided the loads into guys loaded with field boxes w/fuel and others with models so we could all get on or off at the same stop in the time allowed by the conductor and in usable condition. One of the "model toters" pulled the 1957 David Andersen diesel on one of my models through and said "this has a lot of compression!" I was starting to tell him not to flip it, when BRAAAP, it ran off the memories of its last run. Good thing it was about 8:00 AM on a Saturday or Sunday, in December, at the empty Smith and 9th St station, on the way to a site at Red Hook Stadium (Brooklyn, of course.)

Ah, yes, diesels... Can you imagine a 16 year old wandering into an industrial chemicals supplier ,off the street, no "official courier" documents or anything, and asking if I could buy some technical ether. Guy said how many pallets do you want, and answered my question that a pallet was what they move with fork lifts, several hundred gallons. I told him I didn't need that much, so he quoted me a price for 4 or 5, 5 gallon cans. Again I had to wimp out - and asked him what the smallest size he could sell me was. ONE gallon - $3. Seemed a lot of money back then, but paid it anyway.

Took it home on New York Subways, in broad daylight, in our familiar handle-top gallon can, vividly labeled EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE, TECHNICAL ETHER -with 'flame' and 'skull and crossbone' images. Anyway, im \t worked well in the homebrew fuels I used over the next several years, .

I have a long memory, perhaps enhanced by the brilliant glow of years. So much else no one seems to care for in these days of the "toy-in-the-box" attitude. I can snap a double edge Gillette Blue Blade razor so I could cut parts out of the printwood in 10cent COMET kits, and can show the scars to prove it.

Chris,
Is that S1C Pitts, the one with the M-6 airfoil and bottom ailerons? As I recall Pitts went to the the symetrical airfoil and 4 ailerons after that.
 I have always loved the Pitts.

Interesting topic:  First car-1937 Ford - worked all summer before my high school freshman year to buy it.  I was 14 and
only boy in school who owned a car.... Bought 1936 Ford coupe for $15.00 and made a 1/4 mile dirt track car which I raced
while in HS....Other favorites: 55 Chevy HT - 1958 Chevy HT which Carl Berryman and I drove non stop from Lubbock to 58
Chicago Nats and back..(what a trip)  1965 Ford Galaxy 500XL made many a contest.....Favorite - 1999 Corvette convertible
which I still have (54k miles) but it is for sale... Only one plane - 1967 Cherokee 180 which I sold two years ago. Would like
to find a Kolb to play with or a Glasair II.    It's been fun - what a ride!!
RW

Chris..
Thanks for sharing...Great to hear that you have taken such great care of such a cool little car that must have been one of the greatest girleemagnets a young man could own.  
As far as the Pinto goes...Hummm? What a mistake I made when I helped buy my daugther her first car car....("A Found On Road Dead  Ford Tempo..which we nicknamed it her Ford "DISTEMPER!" (from the pits of )

Hi Donaldo,
Yeah, long haired singers with baby blue MG's were attractive to girls, until I opened my mouth. Have you ever seen The Big Bang Theory?

I have owned many Fords, Dad too. I figure they're like any car, quirky. (Remember we like Jags and airplanes too, so we're weird.) The Pinto had a hatchback with the rear seat that folded down so models would go in no problem (much better than the MG). but it had a cam set-up on the 2.3 four banger that was a little like a Rolls Royce Merlin, except without the 100psi oil pressure...the cam follower pushed the valve down and the frictin was too high for the surfacing of the cam lobes, so premature wear was a problem. I did the head four times finally learning how to do as much as possible before taking it to the machine shop for "just what was broken" repairs!
They were popular cars for the youth back in those days, and many a flight was flown because of it's ease of model transport over the MG!

I have a Ford Aerostar minivan and an SHO V-8 Taurus now, they'll have to last me 5 more years at least the way things are going!

Chris...

Put my gas on the card before the gas hike.   The wife argues with me, but the powers in control know when people get paid and retirees get their SS.   Then a day or two later the price goes back down.   

Yeah, I miss the days wen a person could work on their car without all the electronic gizmos.  Have replaced engines, axles and clutches when I had the old Ford Fairlaine 2DR hardtop.  Ford replaced the fourspeed transmission.

first car was a 1962 chevyII 192 6 1 barrel 3 speed 4 door red paid 50 dollars for it man was i happy this was 1973. my dad bought me some used bucket seats for it and  recap tires for my birthday. sold that car in 1975 for 150 dollars and bought a van and then cutomized the van more fun . my first plane was a skylark with a fox 19.

American Flyer train in about 46, Scientific hollow logs with an OK Cub .049 in 51. Got my first Doodle Bug motor scooter when I was 10 in 51. First car was a 37 Chevy I paid $35.00 for when I was 15, which was traded for my first Harley. I traded the Chevy, a Winchester single shot 12 gauge, and $20.00 for the Harley. I skipped over a lot of things, such as my belt drive sidewalk bike when I was 4, and the 48 lowered and leaded in Ford. Great memories. We did not know how blessed we were to be born in this country in the 40's and 50's. We know now though.

My first car was a white Highway Patrol Jeep pedal car with a speaker in the grill and a carbon mic. My first real car was a '56 Mercury Monterey. My first plane was I don't know hwat, I built airplane from scraps under my Dad's bench, he still has a couple of them. No trains, my brother was into that. My first motorcycle was a '38 Indian.

Now you hit an old  memory cell in this old grey matter of mine.  Was not a teen yet when I got one of the plastic antique car kits.  My brother showed me how to assemble it including heating the axle the wheels went on to keep the wheels on.  The glue was in a bottle with a little brush.  Did not use any paint on it.   Boy that has been many years ago.   

There have been many models of the '57 Chevy Bel-Aires and Nomads, but a local chain drug store had what to me was a first.  A 1957 Chevy 150.  I've been looking for a model of my first car since 1964, when I got one.  Now, Revell has a 1/24 kit.  $19.95.  Kind of a sticker shock, back then, these kits were maybe 98 cents.  Problem is, it's a model of a utility, same body, but no rear seat.  Now, I guess I have to find a 1/24 Bel Aire, just for the rear seat.
I don't think I've had a plastic car kit since maybe 1960, except maybe for a few for my HO trains.

I got the 150 from dad when I graduated from a Community Colege in 1964.  He paid about $350 cash.  Shortly before I sold it, after some fix-up, I'd had offers of $550.  Then just a couple days before I had to ship out for an overseas tour, I had to accept $80 for it.  Some AH rubbed me in a parking lot while I was in a store, put creases in both sides, so I imagine it was intentional, especially since I had parked in the emptiest spot in the lot, not another car near me.

First train was an American Flyer something circa 1962. Ran on Dad's layout and later traded to him for a McCoy or some other model engine.

First plane was a Goldberg Shoestring with a McCoy .35. Flew Great! Gold silk on the wings and a black fuse. Sixth grade, makes that about 1969. Dad and I used to load it into the Aztec Gold Vista Cruiser and head to the flying field. He had a blue and white Cosmic Wind. I still have that McCoy, and my in bucket list of controline planes is to build another one, paint it the same and put that original readhead on it.

First car - 1967 Mustang. Green coupe with a 289 and...glass packs. I still drive hot-rodded Mustangs to this day. Why? When I was about 14 Bob Zambelli gave me a ride in his blue Mach 1. I heard and felt that V8, felt ultra cool just sitting it and I fell head-over-heels in love with pony cars.

Shortly before I got out of the USAF in 1968, I almost bought an interesting Stereo outfit for my '62 Falcon. Would have been a step up from the Hi Fi records.  My first Stereo.   Anybody remember 4 track stereos?  I almost bought one, but the clerk clued me in that there wasn't a whole lot of tapes available for them, and they weren't a good deal because the relatively newly released 8 tracks were better, and had a bigger variety of music selections available, even then, and all companies had already stopped making the 4 tracks.  I decided to wait and see, and a year later, bought a home combo am-fm, 8 track, and 4 speed Hi Fi record changer.  Still have it.  Mechanism is kind of gummed up.