I suspect every man treasures his first car purchase and perhaps the next few. Its tied up with a sense that they have come of age, they feel somehow it helps define them. It seems very appropriate therefore, to feature here Dad's first three cars, all of which I knew intimately, which somehow marked every important phase of our growing up. I have little doubt Dad's every car purchase would have filled him with pride. In a time and place when money was very hard to come by, it must have turned many heads. He would have seemed to his peers very clever, a young man with sound ambition going places. These first three were all bought during the 20 years when he worked at the Richmond-Llandovery Sugar Estate Co. His first was a Ford Prefect, I (Peter) can fondly recall seeing it's rooftop just over the tops of fences in the distance, as Dad hurried from work to pick me up from St Ann's Bay Infant School. He was always early to drop me off at school and I'd be all alone until teachers or other students started arriving. But he would be late picking me up from school afterwards. All the more reason for feeling excited seeing its hasty approach. His second purchase was a Ford Consul, it seemed a lot bigger to me. It announced to the world he was a family man with many important passengers to and places to go. This was the car that he tried (unsuccessfully) to teach Mommy to drive with. It had gloriously large, steeply sloping front and rear hoods. I fondly recall lying on and soaking up the warmth from the engine cover after it'd come back from a drive. Or to Luke's annoyance, we would make a game of racing barefoot up on to the car roof then sliding down the rear bonnet on the seat of our pants (or skirt as applicable). The third car was a Ford Zephyr. It had an automatic transmission and marked him as a sophisticate. It was a technological ground-breaker, he was one of the first men in his district to adopt this relatively new technology. We boys were absolutely thrilled and enthralled by the mechanical marvel. It was also far more comfortable. For the first time I think I began to luxuriate in the comfort and warmth of the plush seats on a long drive. By the time the Zephyr was sold I had already moved away from home and Dad bought a small truck, Luke never bought another car. So for posterity, lets hail the man and thank him for three cars, well bought and well served. Hip-hip-hooray!