One of my regular babysitters when I was a young kid was a friendly young lady named Ellen. Her family and mine attended the same church, which must have been an automatic plus for my parents. Our folks were friends, even if I don’t remember going to Ellen’s house for dinner, but having that church connection and the recommendation of Ellen’s parents certainly must have been supplemental to her landing the job.
My early memories of her and what kind of a ship she ran at the Dennis house when left in charge of us three boys aren’t crystal clear, but based on the number of other babysitters I had heard we had besides Ellen (Jodi, Jill, etc.) and with her being one of the last, I came to the conclusion that the spirited liveliness of the Dennis brothers might have made order somewhat challenging to maintain in the absence of our parents.
I’m speculating on some of this. I refuse to believe I was that much of a handful, simply because my default setting has always seemed to be that of peacekeeper (most of the time). I theorize that this comes innately with the territory of being a middle child. At some point later on, my parents decided that my older brother was mature and responsible enough to make sure the younger two Dennises didn’t burn the house down when they were both away for whatever reason, so Ellen was essentially “laid off” by our family as would have been the case in the early-to-mid 1980s for many people in the Flint area who had worked for General Motors.
From that point on, I would see Ellen only on Sunday mornings at Our Savior Lutheran, but by maybe my fifth grade year, I started noticing some changes in my former babysitter. Seemingly all of a sudden, there was a black leather maxi-skirt, short hair with blonde-frosted tips (long before Madonna underwent the “True Blue” blonde chop), nicely fitting knit sweaters, and a generally sullen change in her facial expressions, mannerisms, and way of speaking that I found disconcerting. Maybe that last adjective is too strong a word, but I do remember my mom talking to my dad about whether or not the leather skirt in question was appropriate for walking up the center aisle for communion.
As I recall, Ellen’s leather skirt was neither short, nor skin-tight. My old babysitter certainly didn’t look like she had spent the previous night headbanging at Contos, the local live rock music venue (though it’s entirely possible she might have been). Quite the opposite: to me, she looked chic, in control, and a bit intimidating – and all by design. Her manner of dress probably rubbed my mom the wrong way because: a.) Lutheran; b.) my mom; and c.) the less demure way Ellen was now presenting herself was somewhat removed from the church girl next door. She was a beautiful young woman, and she was styling herself in a manner that expressed this self-realization in a new way. She also seemed to have adopted a bit of an attitude. I loved that all of this irritated my mom.
Our Savior Lutheran Church & School. Flint, Michigan. Saturday, February 19, 2011.
The parking lot of Our Savior on the north end of Flint usually had its share of both well-worn “transportation cars” and nice, not-yet-classic older cars that were rolled out on Sunday morning following Saturday’s wash and fresh coat of wax. A substantial proportion of attendees were employed by one GM factory or another, and Buick City was about three miles away from Our Savior in this same part of town.
One otherwise ordinary Sunday morning, there was a gorgeous, black, late-second-generation Trans Am in the parking lot, much like our featured car. In the mid-’80s, an ’81 Trans Am like this would not have been a raggedy beater or “stoner car” (as my peers and I would later refer to them in high school), but a really nice ride on the secondhand market. I’ll say it all day long (and I have, here at Curbside) that the Firebird’s ’79 restyle was very attractive and still does it for me today.
It was parked two spaces over from our ’77 Plymouth Volaré (which was slowly rusting from the bottom up, even after it had received its replacement fenders) with no car in between. I gazed from the hot-to-the-touch, pleated burgundy vinyl back seat of our car through the triangular rear quarter window at this black beauty two spaces over, resplendent with its gold pinstriping and exotic, smoke-tinted glass t-tops.
Then, out of the rear glass doors of the church near the narthex came the edgy-looking blonde and her younger brother, John, talking loudly and enthusiastically about something. Ellen was now walking straight to the driver’s door of this black Trans Am… with keys in her hand! John might have said something like, “Ellen! Wow! This is a really sweet car!”, as if he had never seen it before. That part is still foggy in my mind, because what she said in response has remained seared into my brain over the ensuing three decades. Looking at John with an expression that appeared to border on disgust and after a short, dramatic pause, Ellen flatly responded, “It’s not a ‘car’… It’s a toy.” She might have put her sunglasses on between her delivery of those two, short sentences.
I have to stop for a second and hail Ellen for delivering one of my favorite, car-related bons mots of all time. Her new-to-her black Trans Am was, to me, the perfect car to complement her newly reinvented persona. Ellen had clearly committed to establishing herself as a strong presence with her new look, clothes and manner of speaking. It was her ownership of this Trans Am, however, that seemed to have made it all jell together. This had given her an instant, rolling, roaring V8 announcement to the world that, yes, she now had an attitude.
I did really like the redesigned-for-’82 Firebird when I had first seen it as a second grader, but the years between then and now have solidified the outgoing, final second-generation ’81 model as my preference if given the choice between just those two years. There is a healthy, cornfed, all-American heft to the older car that really can’t be masked, regardless of the color combination of paint and decals. One could wear a powder blue, Stafford oxford shirt (with Dockers khakis) to cover up one’s sleeve tattoos and deliver a lecture on macroeconomics without raising any conservative eyebrows. However, with this generation of Trans Am, there’s no way it can look other than loud, brash, and unapologetic.
1981 Pontiac Firebird brochure photos, courtesy of www.oldcarbrochures.com.
By contrast, the lithe, sleek ’82, while a beautiful car that looked futuristic at the time, seemed like a more smoothly-styled helping of, well, less. Kind of like the difference between a plate of sashimi rolls versus a steak dinner. I love both, but sometimes more is more, and depending on my mood and appetite, no amount of raw fish will satisfy my craving for a big plate of cow.
Firebird sales were rapidly eroding following ’79s high water mark of over 211,000 cars (55% of which were Trans Ams). They were about half that number (107,000) the following year, with only around 71,000 sold for ’81, the model year of our featured car as determined by a license plate search. This Trans Am is one of about 33,500 of this submodel produced in this generation’s final year. Overall sales of Pontiac’s F-Body then would rebound back into six figures with the ’82 redesign, with over 116,000 examples finding buyers that year.
1981 Pontiac Firebird brochure page, courtesy of www.oldcarbrochures.com.
Three V8 engines were installed in the ’81 Trans Am, including Pontiac’s 301 with 150 horsepower, a turbocharged version of the 301 featuring 200 hp, and Chevy’s 305 with 145 horses. Nineteen Eighty-One would be the last year for Pontiac’s 301. The top engine choice for the ’82 Trans Am would be a 165-horse Chevy 305. Combined with a 10% weight loss over the ’81, the ’82 Trans Am was capable of 0-60 mph in roughly 8.9 seconds, according to a period test by Motor Trend.
The downsized Firebird’s new hatchback body might also have had the benefit of added utility versus the previous fastback’s trunk, but the redesigned ’82 version’s cargo area was shallow, and its hidden compartment under the rear floor wasn’t useful but for maybe a few bags of groceries or a styrofoam cooler and a boombox. Nobody was buying a Firebird to double as a small station wagon, though my Fox-body Mustang hatchback served that purpose quite well with the rear seats folded down, when I was a college student.
I did eventually get to see Ellen again on two, major occasions. My family did attend her wedding, and she was a beautiful bride. At their wedding reception, Ellen and her husband danced, smiled, and mingled with their guests. It was great to see her beautiful smile again following this celebration of Holy matrimony, and she looked genuinely happy. I remember feeling being both pleased and relieved about this.
I would see Ellen just one more time after that. Maybe five years or so after her wedding, my family was planning to move away from the Flint area. My parents had since transferred their membership to a different church, but we were back at Our Savior one last time. By that point, I was now a high school senior and prone to my own sullen expressions. I was downstairs in the church’s lower level, next to the very same classroom where I had attended both kindergarten and Sunday school, when I heard a voice call out: “Joe?? Joe Dennis? Is that you??…” I looked up and saw a conservatively dressed lady with shoulder-length brown hair and those giant, window-pane plastic-frame glasses that were very popular in the ’80s.
Our Savior Lutheran Church & School. Flint, Michigan. Saturday, February 19, 2011.
“I’m sorry… I am Joe. And you are?…” “You mean you don’t recognize me? Think hard!” I started wondering if she had been one of my former Sunday school teachers, or perhaps some friend of my parents whose kids I had been forced to play with when they came over. I was drawing a blank and my silence was making it uncomfortable for both of us, before the lady in front of me said, “It’s ME! Ellen! Your old babysitter!”
I’d like to think my jaw didn’t drop when she said that. However, with the newfound popularity of video calls in the midst of quarantine related to the COVID-19 virus, I can now see exactly what my face usually does in reaction to what I’ve just heard. She had gone from looking like an MTV video vixen to a conservative housewife and mom in maybe five years. We hugged each other, and it was a happy reunion, even despite my initial faux pas in not recognizing her at first.
I mentioned, somewhat shyly, that I had remembered her black Trans Am, thinking to myself of the time she had referred to her prized Pontiac as her “toy”, and she nodded in recognition. “Do you still have that car?”, I asked. “Oh, boy. It hasn’t run for a while, but, yes, we still have it. You could say it would be a real fixer-upper.” And with that, any trace in my mind of Ellen’s former, newfound “attitude” had vaporized into the coffee-and-perfume scented air of that church basement.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, September 23, 2018.
Thanks Joseph.
A nice story to go with the car. Still remember seeing this generation for the first time from inside a city bus. The grille-less “face” looked very futuristic.
We must be two of the only people who really liked the 1979-81 restyle of the Firebird and Trans Am. The second gen Firebird/Trans Am was already well-known in the motoring world, and by the time Smokey and the Bandit was released, the car became an icon. It’s difficult to restyle an icon and the 1979 restyle wasn’t quite as successful in many folks minds, but I thought it was just fine.
Your former babysitter obtaining one of these as a toy at a young point in her life must have been quite interesting. It appears to have mirrored other changes in her life. I’m glad to hear that she kept the car after getting married, I would have thought that it would have been jettisoned shortly after, due to the normal events of combining households and etc. Not everything makes the cut, so to speak.
Great story and glad you were able to capture these images. There’s a big spot in my MM garage for one of these. In gold. T-tops… With the turbo 301…
Make that 3. I like the 77-78 better but I like the 79 nose more than the earlier round headlight facias. The 79-81 full width tinted taillights are my favorite of the generation. I wonder if people would have liked these more if Smokey and the Bandit II weren’t such a dull movie.
My Dad had a 78 in 79, he could have bought a new gold one but he was one who despised that front end. Always a major point of contention between us, can’t tell you how many thanksgivings were ruined!
There was a Smokey and the Bandit II? Had no idea, even though I saw the classic original film shortly after its release, in my middle school gymnasium.
Then you’ll be even more surprised to learn there was a Smokey and the Bandit III! It’s a weird incoherent film, starring a third generation trans am, a fish statue, and jerry reed as the bandit
Make that 4, actually, though personally I like the Formula better…
Six!
Five.
I had about seven 1972 3 4 77 77 80 81 wish i steal had them for example 73 had a 400 67 goat motor 3 carbs all others had 455 all big blocks.
Seven! 🙂
Isn’t it true that some cars are indelibly linked with a person in our lives, and seeing the car will bring all kinds of things rushing back to the surface. This was a fabulous story!
I like these cars so much better than I did when they were new or middle-aged. At the time I was thoroughly sick of them after a decade in production. I had been in “on the ground floor” on these when Mr. Bordner next door had a gold 71, and could not escape them in 74 when my mother was buying her LeMans. But now I think they aged incredibly well and love the over-the-top graphics that made all the rest pretty forgettable.
JP, you mentioned something interesting that I was unable to cleanly incorporate into this essay. By the time the ’79 restyle came out, this basic design was almost a decade old.
I was born in the mid-’70s, so by the time the ’79 was new and I was just starting to pay attention to it, it was just a cool car, and it might as well have been new to me. Many others might have grown tired of its basic look, even if each facelift was successful in keeping it looking updated.
By contrast, it was the early second-generation cars, with their smaller bumpers and taillamp lenses, that looked somewhat “unfinished” to me. intriguing and attractive, but like there was something missing. These later ones had “it”.
“that looked somewhat “unfinished” to me.”
Thanks for this, which served as a good “perspective adjustment” for me. I had never thought of those in this way, but now that you mention it, I can see it. We can add in the fact that the early cars were never anywhere near as popular so were never seen in the numbers the later ones achieved, making early cars the “odd looking” ones to a kid of your age.
This is a great reminder that everyone gets onto the train from a different stop and therefore gets a different ride.
The header panel on this updated F-body leaves me feeling ambivalent. While not as visually pleasing as the ’77-’78 versions, it was still hooked to what could be (for the time) a potent Pontiac, which helped cure many ills.
You had quite the babysitter. My long-time babysitter, Tammy, also obtained a car shortly after parting ways with the ultra-well behaved Jason and his slovenly younger sister. What did Tammy get? A Volare.
Jason, hopefully Tammy didn’t need to take you and your sister somewhere in that Volare and make a hard left under acceleration! If the accounts I have read are correct, that exact move could lead to stalling in some of the early Chrysler F-Bodies. Either way, you lived to tell.
That’s the car of my generation. The ’80s were a party and the Trans Am was along for the ride. A Trans Am, a Members Only jacket and a Van Halen cassette.
I mean, Sammy Hagar was writing songs about them
I might be wrong but those look like they could be aftermarket T-Tops.
LT Dan, I can always count on you for a great musical tie-in.
I’m pretty certain these t-tops are factory. I had read somewhere that when t-tops were first introduced on the Firebird for ’76, there were two types that were done: the “Hurst hatches” that didn’t look quite as integrated, and then the other ones that ran the full length of the door, as they do on this one.
I’m sure there’s an expert that could weigh in, and I don’t feel like researching it right now, but I’m pretty sure that’s the case.
T-tops are the icing on the cake on a Trans Am!
My first rock concert was Sammy Hagar in 1979 supporting this album. Good times! The concert was on a Friday night and my 9th grade English class had hearing checks the following Monday. Needless to say, I flunked it and had to get retested.
There were a lot of Iranian exchange students at my university back then. This is what they all drove. These were poseur cars. Even Burt, with his ten gallon hat and wry smirk, seems to say “all hat and no cattle.”
The 78-79s with the 400 and 403 were about as performance as performance cars could be in those years, so I wouldn’t call those poseur, but once the spigot got shut off and displacement fell to 301ci, even with the (archaic) Turbo, that flashy decal laden appearance sure does start to seem hokey.
The TransAm was the type of car for men who blow dried their chest hair before putting on lots of gaudy gold chains. This was THE car for newly divorced dads.
In those later years, yup. The ’74 SD455 was the last proper T/A for my taste, although things were getting pretty gaudy by then. A white/blue 4-speed ’70 1/2 does it for me…relatively understated, if there is such a thing with a T/A.
My wife had a silver/red ’76 400 4-speed T/A during college when we were dating and I drove it a lot. It was a real dog. Okay torque off the line, but it ran out of breath by 4k RPM. Redlined at 5400 or thereabouts, but by that point there was no point. Of course, pretty much everything coming out of Detroit in those years was a dog.
Hahahahaha. There was an Iranian student in my freshman dorm’s floor…he drove a trans am.
We would leave messages for him: “Mr. Savak called”. He didn’t think that was funny. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK
Great writeup and I always thought these cars oozed attitude.
These are a bit light on the ground in the midwest now but live immortally in some of my favorite movies, playing the part. Spicoli crashing one in Fast Times, of course, Smoky and the Bandit and Old School, where the car fit in perfectly with the many different renditions of White Snakes’s Here I Go Again that play throughout the film.
Also, spot on about the church basement smell!
Sam, thank you. Yes, these T/As were attitude on wheels. One more thing about our church basement – I remember at some point up to maybe the early ’80s, there were ashtrays on the tables where they had Bible study, so up to a certain point in my childhood, there was also the scent of baked-in second-hand smoke combined with perfume and Folger’s crystals!
Nice find and good story. Until proven otherwise, I might be the only regular CC’er who actually owned a 1981 Trans Am, bought new no less and in my possession for less than a year. Traded in my ‘77 Scirocco as a down payment, and then traded it, with very little cash back, on a new 1982 Honda Civic. An interesting detour on my path of COAL’s. Mine was a California-only 305 with 4 speed, and WS6 package (8” wide rims, bigger sway bars, faster steering box, urethane bushings, limited slip and rear discs … which this example also seems to have). No T top or “screaming chicken” hood decal on mine. A picture of it can be found in here
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/my-cars-of-a-lifetime-43-years-of-mostly-mundane-motoring/
I am not sure I can think of two people who went more “against type” in buying their first new cars. My 1985 VW GTI was a real lonely item in a list full of big American cruisers. I managed to keep it for two years.
Me also, though I bought an ’86 GTi and kept it 14 years, so it was my type.
In fact it replaced a ’78 Scirocco (bought in early 1981)…I’ve bought nothing but VWs, all manual, for 40 years. My current ’00 Golf replaced the GTi.
Never was interested in GM F body, though my brother-in-law owned a ’78 Camero way back when (though he’s owned so many cars I think he’d have trouble recalling them all. I’m the opposite, only having owned 5 cars in 47 years as licensed driver.
I think I got the small car bug from my Father, who actually (also) owned large cars like our ’73 Ranch Wagon, but starting in 1966 bought a used ’59 Beetle, and from then on always had a smaller 2nd car which was most often an import. I drove the Ranch Wagon and others and working for Hertz as transporter in the 70’s got to sample the end of the large Detroit era so guess I got it out of my system back then. Of course it has been made the default so that everyone now pretty much drives what would have been considered small cars back then (or has moved on to trucks as default large vehicle). I do appreciate large cars, but haven’t ever considered owning one myself.
Thanks, Dman. Your burgundy Trans Am was a beauty. I think these cars look great in darker colors.
This brought back a few memories… a friend’s girlfriend had a new black & gold 1976 TA, properly outfitted with a 455/4V and 4speed manual. I think this was the first year of the color scheme, and the last with round headlights.
I drove it a number of times, and despite the big engine being gelded compared to the 455 SD mills of 1973-74, it was still a torquey thing, great smooth-road handling, and just plain hot compared to anything else I routinely got to drive. With apologies to Jean Stapleton… “those were the days.”
No apologies! I just heard that in my head in the Edith Bunker-voice, and I loved it!
Joe Dennis – Is that you ? haha
Thank you for another wonderful story. This car brings back memories for me, as one of my best friends growing up had the same car in gold. Granted, it didn’t look as good in gold as it does in black, and the “screaming eagle” looses some of it’s panache against the gold hood.
But we had some fun times in that car. It was purchased used, slightly abused, and when my friend was finished with it, it was ready for the junk yard.
Even though I liked the body style of this car, the redo that came out for 1982 was a much better looking car. I even liked the “flat styled wheel covers” that were used on some of the models.
Can’t wait until your next story.
Thanks, NJcarguy. Like your friend’s car, I imagine quite a few of these V8-powered Firebirds had a similar trajectory, being born to be driven hard.
What a wonderful story, I don’t always comment on these due to not always having something to add, but Joe Dennis is required reading around here. I’ll bet we all have a similar babysitter/neighbor/classmate etc memory which is suddenly conjured up by this.
I too like this car for some reason, while nowadays it’s attractive just as much for its “kitsch” factor (in a good way) as for whatever performance attributes it may have had or pretended to have in its day. Whatever, people were buying them back in the day and ultimately that’s what matters to the company.
See XR7 Matt’s response above… The 400 & 403 T/As were pretty stout for the times; granted they weren’t a 455 Super Duty, but in the late 1970’s they were pretty damned quick. How Chevrolet division never managed to castrate the Pontiac F-bodies (but somehow the fuel shortages did…) is beyond me.
By the time the 301 Pontiac, 305 Chevy and turbo 301 Pontiac powered T/A’s arrived on the scene, we were back into fuel shortage Hell again. Not the best way for the storied 2nd Gen F-body to depart…
Thanks so much, Jim. My older sister used to joke with me that given my penchant for all things late-’70s, I was born in the wrong decade. To me, this car isn’t kitsch. It’s a bit loud for everyday “wear” for me kind of like my late uncle’s black leather jacket, but like my uncle’s jacket, I would absolutely “rock” this Trans Am and get used to it.
Joe, I think this is one of your best articles, and that’s saying something. I can close my eyes and picture Ellen at each stage during which you knew her. And her persona fits the Trans Am perfectly.
As with many of your pieces, this got me searching my memory for any remotely equivalent comparable. I settled on my older sister’s friend Nadine. I secretly had a crush on Nadine, and she went through a period in high school when she presented herself in a chic way just how Ellen did. Of course I liked it when Nadine would come over to our house, and quietly fumed when she and my sister had one of their many arguments.
Nadine’s father was a doctor, though her parents lived a rather down-to-earth lifestyle – living in a modest house and driving normal cars. For Nadine’s 16th birthday they bought her a Plymouth Turismo 2.2. And I always thought that to be somewhat ironic — here’s a girl who I thought was as stylish as any girl could be, had an edgy attitude… and drove a maroon Turismo. She would have fitted a Trans Am better.
Thanks for stirring these long-lost memories!
Eric, thank you so much.
And here’s a new phenomenon – your memory of Nadine’s Turismo has triggered another one from me. I think these Chrysler L-Bodies must have appealed to parents who wanted to buy a sporty used car for their not-quite-adult children.
When I was a teenager looking for my first purchase, I had gone out to look at a Plymouth Turismo 2.2 that had a very reasonable amount of miles and was in decent shape. It was more money than I could afford.
The dad had bought it for his daughter (who might have been my age) recently, and he had now put it in the classifieds. The reason he was selling it? She wanted, like, a Fi-AIRR-oooh.
What the L-Body hatchbacks lacked in chic, they seemed to make up for in “smart”. Still, the compromise would have been a G-Body Dodge Daytona or Chrysler Laser, which were still pretty hot looking cars by the early ’90s.
It’s funny, as I was writing my comment, I was thinking “Nadine would have really been a good match for a Fiero.” From what I recall, Nadine’s parents owned a FWD New Yorker as well, so maybe they were simply a Chrysler family.
Another benefit of the Turismo was that it undoubtedly was cheaper to insure than a Firebird, Daytona, or any other “sporty” car… and in Philadelphia in the 1980s (where I grew up), that was a big factor in car purchases.
Great story!
It took me only a moment to visualize what Ellen would’ve been daily-driving at the time of that last meeting. Had to be an A-body wagon, with woodgrain. Only question is whether it would’ve been a Buick Century or Olds Cutlass Ciera.
NLPNT, I really wish I knew now what Ellen and her husband had driven to church that morning. Like you pointed out, I’m sure it would have made for a very interesting juxtaposition against the Trans Am.
What a great “coming of age” story! It’s sort of like “Summer of ’42” with a hot car instead of a first physical encounter. The metamorphosis of the former babysitter is so realistically described, I feel as though I had been personally present for the whole years-long saga! This would make a great car-themed mini-movie.
And maybe now Ellen is back to wearing stylish clothes and reliving her youth a bit? And yearning for another black TA?
Or, having fixed up the one she already had…
Ellen may have returned to looking stylish, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the Trans Am ended up another five years later in one of the many junkyards lining Dort Highway in the north end of Flint!
I actually bought the rust-free shell of a 1980 T/A from one of those Dort Hwy junkyards in 1990… Needed it to replace the rusted-out frame rails on my ’77, and it had the added bonus of giving me T-Tops, which I hadn’t had in the ’77. Once in a while a real afficianado would ask me how I got the bigger Fisher Body T-Tops in a ’77,as they weren’t available until mid-’78.
Mike, thanks for chiming in and for the Flint connection. That sounds like the t-tops conversion was a lot of work, with the modifications to the roof of your ’77 for the newer t-tops, but that’s one thing I always hugely respected about the people I knew in Flint who worked on cars. There was such an amazing amount of skill and know-how. It always blew my mind. Still does.
Automakers were more adventurous then, and stylists had a freer hand. Hard to imagine Mustang, Challenger, or Camaro going “grille-less” all of a sudden now, for example. Though Fox Mustang did in the 80’s, for both SVO and GT. Grille-less and horse-less.
Almost every other car on the street including the Prius would leave it in the dust in a drag race, but it’s still my dream car. The non-turbo 301s with the shakers are relatively rare birds in Chicago, I always thought that was a CA spec package
I was actually one of the few that had a 301 turbo that actually moved out. 2nd gear would get a considerable chirp and it would go ,they were pretty much a dog off the line but if you got the RPM’s up it went with that Turbo. All relative to the time when everything was a dog.
Z28’s vettes and Porsche 944 Turbo were all easy to beat. The only car I couldn’t run down was a 67 Riviera with the 430 and dual quads.
I recall my uncle having one when I was little. Several years ago while cleaning out my grandmas house, I found a speeding ticket from 1985 identifying it as a 1974.
I’m pretty certain ’74 was the last year for the SD455 in the T/A. That was a good year.
You always tell the best stories Joe, and paint quite a picture with your words. I have to agree with Jim Klein above. A Joseph Dennis post is required reading here at the CC Academy.
As to favorite front ends of this generation, I’ve grown to like them all. When the ‘79 came out, I was wondering what Pontiac was thinking, but by ‘81, the look had grown on me. Coming here, I appreciate the pre-Smokey-&-the-Bandit look as well, after reading about Aaron’s red Esprit.
Working from home today, I was working with a coworker who was also working from home, and recalling his own TransAm of this generation. He had this car back in the eighties and it broke down in the center lane of I-83 on the way home from work one day. I came upon the back-up and wondered what was up. When I pulled up behind his car, as luck would have it, a Maryland State Trooper in the fast lane stopped traffic in that lane with his B-Body, and we pushed my buddy’s car onto the left shoulder while I had the center lane blocked with my ‘83 T-Bird. We both thanked the State Trooper and I drove my friend home. We still talk about that day, even though it was 35 years ago!
He drives a Lexus now. How times change.
Another old friend had a Turbo 301 version in silver and white. While an odd color combination for a T/A, it was a pretty car. His had no huge screaming chicken thought. It was a very small screaming chicken on the part of the hood that was bump for the turbo intake. A subtle nod to the big decal, and very tasteful. I’m not sure if this was a special version like an anniversary ‘bird or not.
He too had a big B-Body Caprice to rescue him when his T/A wasn’t running right, only he owned it, not the State of Maryland.
Thanks, RetroStang Rick. I was on the edge of my seat hoping that your ’83 Thunderbird didn’t get hit from behind while stopped in the center lane of the expressway while you helped your friend. I’m glad all ended up okay.
I do think that silver-and-white does look great on these. On paper, it doesn’t sound like it would be the best combination, but it’s one that looks best when you see it in person.
As soon as the trooper saw what was going on, he put on his emergency lights and got out signaling lanes 1 and 2 to stop, so my Thunderbird was safe in lane 2. Traffic was already down to a stop and go pace because a) rush hour, and b) my buddy’s TransAm. As it was, we had his car off to the left shoulder and were “down and away”, as they say in NASCAR parlance, in under 2 minutes. I’m sure those stuck in traffic were quite relieved. And as a bonus, that gave us the “Pole Position” once we got down to I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway).
Aha! This all makes sense. I’m glad everything worked out in the end. And when you mentioned “Pole Position”, my mind immediately thought of the Atari game. One could say that writing and re-reading this piece (as well as the comments) put me in a very 1980s frame of mind. 🙂
Fantastic read Joe. Not to sound like a broken record, but this was one of your best stories ever. These Trans Ams were so cool. My friends and I all wanted one. I actually liked the 79 to 81 nose better at the time as it seemed more futuristic. Today though I much prefer the 77 to 78 nose.
Thanks so much, everyone. This one was fun to write, and I recalled several details I had forgotten about as I was writing it. I feel like in a way, my stories live on because I get to tell them here. That means something to me that you all read and respond to them. So, cheers.
I recall this car being described as “still disco in a new-wave world”, and that pretty much sums it up for me. (But keep in mind, I likedisco!)
I recall someone stopping me as I was strolling on my old university’s grounds, someone who spent about 30 seconds banging on about his life in the last few years while I thought to myself, “who is this guy? Then, perhaps sensing I didn’t recognize him, he asked “you’re Bob, right?” And I was like “no, i’m Lee”. Ah, that explained why I didn’t recognize him…
A fellow church member still has a white Firebird Trans Am from the succeeding generation (’82-’92); I see it on the road every so often so it’s still in running condition & in pretty good shape. It looks very much like the one below. And while cars today might be more powerful, they just don’t have the “looks” or cool artwork graphics of all the old Camaros, Firebirds, and Mustangs from the ’70s & ’80s. The old cars can “look” fast without actually moving.
“…the coffee-and-perfume scented air of that church basement.” I think you & I share the ability to recognize scents from certain places. For example, my church–Leesville United Methodist Church in South Carolina–also has a distinct air smell that’s neither good nor bad (and actually kind of hard to describe in words) but if you’ve been there and borrow something that’s been in the building for a long time it retains that scent even when you use the item somewhere else. The scent on the item becomes that much more distinct when taken from its natural setting. I’m likely one of the few human beings who can recognize things like this; animals have this ability as a natural instinct.
That’s awesome. I love that the sense of smell can trigger memories and associations so strongly.
You also bring up an interesting point. Many cars in the speed-starved late-1970s had “paint-on performance” graphics, while newer performance cars can look much more understated by comparison. Speaking softly and carrying a big stick, to paraphrase President Theodore Roosevelt.
https://politics.theonion.com/shirtless-biden-washes-trans-am-in-white-house-driveway-1819570732
This is what I see when I see a 1981 Trans-Am
It is September 1979 and I walk into the Safeway, in Orinda, with a friend to buy some beer. As I walk in the door there is this absolutely gorgeous Chinese girl talking to one of the employees and I walk right into a side display. I recover while my friend asks what was that. As we check out, a classmate from SDSU in 1976, is also in the store even though he goes to UCSF Dental School. Big hellos in the line as the girl walks out.
Two weeks later I’m sitting in Sproul Plaza on a short wall with my sister when I see this girl walk by. I tell my sister I’m going to meet her and walk off. She tells me the girl sitting next to her, who heard me, was shaking her head. I walk up, said hi, saw you in Safeway and she said she recalled the commotion with meeting my old friends. We walked to her car, which was exactly this car in the story, and I thought wow. Became friends, saw her place in Miss Chinatown, and we are still friends to this day but the car is long gone.
I love this story – fantastic! Thank you for sharing it.
Why was the girl next to your sister shaking her head?
Wonderful story. Being late 1979 I suspect it was an automatic L80 Olds 403 T/A, as most of them were that year. There was talk about raising the Trans Am’s ride height at one time to appease lady buyers, and it does seem the case that this macho coupe did indeed appeal to lady buyers as well as men.