Since I was really young I can remember riding in my dad's car from place to place just to cruise. I loved hearing the deap lopey rumble of the old pontiac role into the parking lot to pick me up at the babysitters. My Dad's 1971 Trans am was a deep Blue with the coolest customized grahpics printed all over the car, and there was no where else in the world you would rather be than sitting in the back of that car when he would hit the gas.
Unfortunately it wasn't long after some of those fond memories that my father had come home with bad news from the shop about that deep blue pontiac. We didn't know anything about working on car's at the time, and any bad report seemed grim. Dad's Trans am got put away in the back of the barn under a tarp for a number of years... until he got the courage to begin restoring it himself.
I was pretty young at the time so i hadn't expressed a ton of interest at first but eventually i found my way out to Dad's workplace in the barn. It was only a matter of time after that before i got 'the Bug' myself. Working on the car became a place of solice and enjoyment, and there was no better way to learn more of the excitement i had felt when i was younger. By time I was 14 i had aquired my own engine. It was a pontiac 400 out of a Catalina that dad had purchased as a back up for $100. It all ran and i wanted my own project so dad had me start cleaning it up.
It wasn't long after that i had picked up my first car. My 79 Formula Firebird came out of Syracuse NY for $700. It had no motor (Which wasn't a problem in my book), and needed a lot more than just some paint. And so my love for F-Bodys was born and became a dominant hobby in my life. My Dad and i had that same car running and driving to accompany me and my still amazing girlfriend (5 years later) to prom.