Picture the scene: It's August 1984 and you're about to start your first semester of community college. You've got the $1,200 you earned stocking shelves at your dad's hardware store all summer burning a hole in your pocket and your eyes on the sweet panel van your buddy Darryl is selling. The problem is; you know you should spend the money on your first apartment so you can move out of your Mom's basement. What should you do? Score the van and spend the leftover cash on airbrushing, or take your first step into responsible adulthood? One young man named Mike Spinelli knew the answer, and this van is the result.
Mike and his partner in crime, Eddie (the van), spent three blissful years together. Scoring weed, picking up babes at the roller disco and cruising with their buddies around suburban Westchester. Then, one fateful day in the autumn of 1987, with the profits from his sweet job at the car wash doing nothing in the bank, a metallic brown and gold Trans-Am caught Mike's eye and he said goodbye to Eddie forever. It would be four more years before Mike moved out of his mom's basement and he never would see Eddie again, but the seeds of automotive lust had been firmly sown in his heart. The rest is history.*
Mike's van is featured in the book "My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face" by Best Week Ever contributor Michael Ian Black.
[via Best Week Ever]
*This story may not be entirely accurate.