“Saturday Night Live” alumna Ana Gasteyer has appeared in hit films and television shows such as “Mean Girls,” “People of Earth” and “Suburgatory.” She is also an accomplished singer and jazz musician who has performed in several Broadway plays. You can see her on season 2 of the Netflix series “Lady Dynamite,” which is available now.
What was your first car?
My first car was a royal blue Datsun B210, stick shift. It drove like an amusement park fantasy ride or a tin-can death wish, depending on your age and perspective.
How did you acquire it?
My parents bought it from a neighbor for $100 so that I could drive myself to school my senior year of high school.
What is your favorite memory of the car?
My girlfriends and I would sneak off campus to drive to 7-Eleven for candy and cigarettes. We rode around at night, tailing boys we liked, listening to music. I remember spinning on black ice more than once (I was young enough to not be scared). Once I saw a friend in the window of a bus, so I sped up to her but accidentally grazed the back corner of the bus when we stopped. The bus was so fine that the driver just waved me on, forcing me to roll past my hysterically laughing friend in the window, revealing the crumpled tin can that was now my passenger-side door.
What happened to it?
I went to school in Illinois, and my parents deemed the B210 unsafe for the wintry roads. They sold it for a dollar, but I’m not sure to whom. Maybe a mechanic. I took the bus for another two years, then inherited the family VW.
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