The (Nostalgic) Brochure on My Old Mazda RX-7: A Symbol of Adventure & Memories

How many times did I go somewhere, park, and turn off the ignition, wait about five to 10 seconds and boom, the car was let out the sound of a loud cannon.

Today I want to talk about my nostalgic old car.  A 1980 Mazda RX-7.  It’s more than just a car.  It’s a touchstone for my life.  Do you have anything like that? Something that reminds you of the best years of your life?  The past?  Something that you have trouble letting go?  

I didn’t buy it new.  It was when I had my retail store L’Attitude that I’ve talked about before and was looking to change up from my 1975 rust colored four door Toyota Corolla. That was quite a car too.  I had bought that used too, and it served me well as I made my way through college and working.  But I was ready for something more sporty.  This was the perfect car.  I also learned to drive a stick shift for this very purpose.  I figured it was time, and would be a lot more fun to have a sports car type of car that was stick than automatic.  

My friend Gina, who has since passed away and who I’ve talked about several times, also bought an RX-7, but hers was a 1982 and had an automatic transmission.  It was a beautiful charcoal gray.  Her family actually still has it. Gina was somewhat of a more cautious driver.  But we were formidable in our little cars, zooming around.  Well, I was definitely zooming around.  At least in the beginning everything worked.  The air conditioning, the heating.  Now, it was a 1980, right?  So, it had an AM/FM radio and it must have had something else added to it, because once it was broken into and there was a gaping hole where they had pulled out whatever I had there.  I honestly can’t remember.  So I saved up and installed a CD player with a detachable faceplate.  That way no one would really want to break in to steal THAT.   

I moved to Hollywood and was living in an apartment in the neighborhood behind Graumman’s Chinese Theater.  Not directly behind it, but a few blocks away.  Basically a safe neighborhood, as safe as any.  I had to park it on the street because the building I was living in didn’t have any parking.  Apartment living like this is really for the young I’ve decided.  Coming home with groceries or anything else, and not knowing if you can park in front of your residence or several blocks away.  Adventure at its best.  And then street sweeping days where there would be no parking on one side of all the streets made it that much more challenging sometimes.  It was a wild neighborhood sometimes.  There were a lot of young people and many students who were attending Musician’s Institute or M.I. down on Hollywood Boulevard.  Cute rocker boys carrying their guitar cases.  But also a lot of people partying at night.  

One day I came out to find footprints running up the front of my hood up and over the top of my car.  So yeah, that put a permanent dent in the top of my car.  Sadly.  Easy to see with the black paint.   

Then there was the morning I came out of my apartment to go somewhere and looked at where I THOUGHT I left my car only to find it wasn’t there.  It was a little challenging because I always parked in a different place.  Yes, someone had stolen it.  That was a terrible feeling.  I had also scheduled a week off from work and had a reservation in Las Vegas.  I really wanted to go, but I was so worried about my car.  I had a psychic friend at the time.  Tammie, the friend I met when I started working at the USC Health Sciences campus, knew her and we went to see her a few times.  She was pretty awesome.  Well, I consulted with her about my car, and if it would be found, and I know she thought I was crazy, but she said it would be found.  I didn’t know if that would really be the case, but I felt better hearing that and rented a car to go on my trip.  

I remember I had made a reservation at the long gone Stardust Hotel motor court in the back and for whatever reason I hit the lottery that trip and they upgraded me to the tower overlooking the Strip.  I had a big plush room with a big bathtub in the middle of the living room.  It was times like this I wished Bill had come with me but he had to work and I asked him to check my answering machine for any news.  Sure enough he called me a few days in and said that yes, my car had been found!  

Now for those of you who have ever had this happen to you, you know that when your car is stolen it’s not usually a good feeling or a pretty sight when you do see it again.  It looked like a tornado had washed through it.  The car had been found on a side street several miles away from where I lived.  Everything inside was basically taken except for one CD and an umbrella.  Go figure.  The ignition was torn up and it felt just icky knowing that someone else had gone through my little car, let alone taken it for a joy ride?  But I had it back!  

That car took me a lot of places over the years.  The first time I ever went to Vegas I drove that car with a big bag of tangerines from my parents’ tree for snacks and a blanket I had bought from IKEA.  The heater didn’t always work so good.  It was just after Christmas and it was cold in the desert.  I ended up seeing snow on the tumbleweeds and Joshua trees!  So beautiful for this girl who has only seen snow a few times.  It was quite a treat.  

Now even in its heyday, the car had a personality all its own.  When it would get hot, like as in hot being driven a ways, or just hot outside, it tended to backfire.  This would usually happen when I turned it off too or when I accelerated sometimes and then let my foot off the gas.  How many times did I go somewhere, park, and turn off the ignition.  Wait about 5-10 seconds and BOOM!  The car would let out the sound of a loud cannon.  You would see people around you jump, naturally.  It was kind of comical.  Sorry.  Now, if I had to park in a parking garage, like at the mall or an office building?  Oh, I felt really bad.  Yeah.  Because then it would reverberate and sound even louder.  Sorry, just me.  

I also learned a LOT about cars because of the Mazda.  When I was living in Hollywood, especially at first, I was really completely broke most of the time, so having any kind of car trouble was a tough thing.  I had been a member of the Auto Club so I could get free towing, but at some point that became too expensive so I had to let it lapse.  There was a guy up by where Gina lived – actually Gina found him to work on her car too.  The shop was called Vince and Dick’s. He was Vince, but Gina and I used to joke because we never saw anyone else, and certainly never saw Dick!  Who was Dick?  Anyway, Vince helped me a lot.  I remember one time I was having trouble with my brakes and he talked me through how to put brake fluid in the car and then pump the brakes to get the fluid down into the line. It worked well enough that I could drive the car to him!  He also taught me that if the car started to get too hot by the temperature gauge, if I turned on the heater it would help take the heat off the engine.  This came in very handy once when I was driving to Las Vegas in the middle of the day and going up those big mountain ranges oh, my car was starting to overheat.  So I rolled down the window and turned on the heater full blast.  I got pretty hot but it worked and my engine didn’t overheat.  Just me!  There is also the time I was flying up the highway.  I usually keep an eye on my rearview mirror when I’m driving but this time I didn’t.  And of course I had my music playing at full volume.  All of a sudden I hear a loudspeaker next to me.  It was a CHP cruiser California Highway Patrol who had pulled up to me and he said over his speaker, “The speed limit is 55 not 90.”  I smiled, did a shy little wave and slowed down as he kept going.  I guess he didn’t want to get out of his air conditioned car.   

Now I’ve had a lot of dogs I guess in my life now, but back in the day when I had this car, I also had Mocha, a shepherd pit bull mix.  She was a sweet dog who was so bonded to me.  She was really my first heart dog.  When she passed away, I really mourned her and missed her more than any of the others. I was devastated.  She was a great dog. In a lot of ways, she’s like Brownie, our current dog, in that she liked to be with me, but then she didn’t have the extreme separation anxiety that Brownie has.  Anyway, Mocha ended up getting cancer and she was being treated out in Hermosa Beach at a specialty vet.  That’s probably about 40 miles or so from here.  Back then they didn’t have a lot of oncology vets.  Anyway, I remember taking her out there in my RX-7 and picking her up and letting her lay down in the back hatch area.  Like I’ve said, a lot of memories with this car.   

Through the years when the subject of the RX-7 came up, Bill would suggest that I let it go.  I held to my decision to keep it though and through the years, I would see fewer of them on the road.  It’s a little scary now that I haven’t seen one in I don’t know how long. 

There was also a time when Bill took the car to work. He would drive off to the barn in the RX-7, but I told him to be careful about the backfiring issue because it would scare the horses.

When we moved back to the house a couple of years ago the apartment manager graciously allowed us to keep it there for a while.  But recently it was time to finally move it to the house.  Still, not an easy feat.  I had changed it to non-operational long ago because I wasn’t driving it.  It didn’t have a charged battery, and the tires are old and so kind of out of air.  We were basically out of luck in so many ways.  It was also stored in the underground garage meaning it had to get up one level to the street but the garage had low clearance.  Not just any tow truck would be able to get back there.  And in the end we would need a flatbed tow truck anyway because of the non-operational status.  Well, we really lucked out with the guys who arrived with the flatbed.  Truly the driver was a problem solver in the purest sense of the word.  And whereas they usually just send one person, this time we had an extra guy to help.  Good thing, since it had to be pushed to the bottom of the ramp so that they could pull it up with their cable.  Pushing a car is never an easy thing and certainly not with kind of deflated tires.  

And easing it into our backyard was a feat too with our narrow driveway and gate, but it’s here and I’m happy to have it with me now.  It’s the biggest effort from so many people.  My husband, my brother-in-law and the tow truck driver and his associate.  I know, I’m supposed to let things go.  But I hope I can work on getting this car back to running condition and drive it once more maybe around the neighborhood.  

I was out there trying to clean off the years of garage dust and have even bought the car its own brand new car cover.  It’s so great to have it here!  Do you have anything that you love from the past that you can’t get rid of?  Let me know on social media.  I’m posting photos of my car.  I’d love to hear from you.  

That’s all I’ve got for today.  Next week we’ll tackle another topic, together.  I hope you’ll join me.