1951 Anglia, my first car!

It was the late sixties, and I had a brand new driver's license burning a hole in my wallet. All I needed to take life to the next step was a car. Trouble was, my bank account had a hundred bucks in it. No matter, I was on the hunt.

My dad (who we always called Pop) worked at the CN Railway station. In fact, he really had only two jobs his whole life, a short stint at a newspaper in Winnipeg, then he joined the railway. There was a transfer to Edmonton for four years and on to Kelowna when I was five months old. But I digress, this is supposed to be about my FIRST car!

Mr. Fowles, a yard worker at the rail yard, would on occasion, drive to work in an old car he had. That car was a 1951 Ford Anglia. Although it was pretty rough, through my rose-coloured glasses I could see it was the same as the A/Gas dragsters that were very popular back then. I pestered Pop many times to approach Mr. Fowles to see if I could buy the car. Eventually he did, and Mr. Fowles agreed to sell me the car for $35.00. Coincidentally my brother Jim's FIRST car, a '37 Ford humpback, was also bought for $35.00 ten years earlier. But that's another story.

With transfer papers and cash in hand, I set out to the Fowles' home to buy the car! Then with the signed papers it was off to the Motor Vehicle office to register the car in MY name and buy a temporary operator's permit to get it home. Needless to say the route home was not exactly direct, I had to get some gas and then I had to get the feel behind the wheel. I quickly learned this was a tired old car, but it was MINE!

With the car at home, I went to work on it. A big bucket of bondo and several spray cans of hotrod primer I had the body looking pretty good. Next it was off to Happy Henry's Auto Wrecking yard for a pair of Volkswagen wheels. Turns out the 15" VW wheels have the same bolt pattern and were much wider than the Anglia's 16" wheels. I got a pair of used 900x15 tires mounted on them and with the wheels installed backwards on the back axle. I had a car that looked like the aforementioned Anglia gasser. It still had the little flathead four under the hood but I didn't care. I've always been more about the look than the go. With Pop as my cosigner, I was able to insure the car for $49.00. That's more than I paid for the car, but it was within my $100.00 budget and I was on the road!

My part-time job washing dishes at the hospital paid enough to keep gas and oil in the car, but there was little else left for the car. And it did use more than a bit of oil. There was always a little blue cloud following me whoever I went. In fact I remember every few days, putting in about four gallons of gas and a quart of Mohawk bulk oil. Gas was less than 40¢ a gallon and the oil 37¢ which added up to $2.00.

The battery had a dead cell, so would only hold enough juice to start the car for about thirty minutes. After that, it was either push it or crank it. Fortunately every English car of that era had a crank as standard equipment. I got pretty good at cranking and pushing. And whenever possible, I would park on the top of even the slightest hill. Just get it rolling, put it in second gear and pop the clutch.

I had many great times with that car, and it taught me a very valuable automotive lesson. If you treat a car properly, it'll do the same for you. Like many other car guys, I wish I still had that first car!

Anglia's looked the same from the 30's to the early 50's