I need a car

The weeks come and go, I need a car. Fred, Sue’s brother tells me one day that he has a mate in the used car trade. He organises to have a five-year-old Falcon delivered to the flat in Red Hill. Ben, being in the car trade, checks the vehicle over and declares it ‘clean’. We agree to a price and I tell him I don’t have that sort of money. No problem, Fred says, we’ll get you hire purchase. You have a steady job, no problem getting a loan. Next day Fred arrives with the paperwork from a Finance company who will loan me the money to buy my car. We drive to Stones Corner to the office of the Finance Company to give them the paperwork and they give me a cheque made out to Fred’s mate in the used car business.

My first car - a 1967 XL Sedan

We drive over to his place and I drive home with my first Australian car. It smells nice, looks spotlessly clean and when Ben gets home from work we go for a drive into town. We cruise down Queen Street and I do a right turn into Edward Street where a policeman steps into the road and stops me. Didn’t I see the no-right-turn sign he asks me. No, sorry officer, I reply. He writes out a ticket for twenty bucks. Well done, Bohlen, the first night in my first car in Australia and I already have to pay a traffic fine.