They're Riding in Their Cars

There are not many rights of passage like getting into your first car and driving away with that ultimate feeling of freedom and independence. Several of your favorite Mercury players shared their memories of their first rides.

MERCURY CENTER SLOBODANKA TUVIC

"My first car was a red Alfa Romeo Fiat. It was a really fast sports car. I liked it. I like to drive fast… I mean aggressive, though. I drive aggressive. You can’t drive here aggressive. With a stick shift, driving’s a lot more fun.

"I sold my car, because I go wherever my team is. You get attached to your first car, but I had to sell it. It was really good and fast. "

MERCURY GUARD DIANA TAURASI

"It was a brown 1986 Toyota Corolla, four-door, stick. It was the ugliest thing. It was my parents' and it was passed down to me when they got their new car. So I got the ’86 Corolla. We would crash it. It would go through anything. It never stopped on me. We’d take it to the beach. It was a good time. It’s been gone, long gone."

MERCURY FORWARD SHEREKA WRIGHT

"My first car was a maroon Dodge Dynasty. It was my mom’s car, and my dad decided to get a little old-fashioned Oldsmobile and give me the old car. I was so nervous when I first got the car, because I just got my license and driving felt so, so different. But it was a good car. It was a `classic.’ It was a family car, so I felt like I was high class. Everybody else had really small cars. I had a Dodge Dynasty, so I was riding in class. We traded it in and I got a brand new car when I went to college. That was a Pontiac Sunfire, which I have to date."

MERCURY GUARD NIKKI McCRAY

"My first car was my 1991 Ford Mustang. My parents bought it for me and I just recently gave it to my brother. I’d had it all these years. In Tennessee they called it Mustang Sally because my mom’s name is Sally. They used to say, ‘You need to get rid of Mustang Sally.’ But I said, `No, you never part with your first car.' Now you look at the new Mustangs and they are just awesome."

MERCURY FORWARD KAYTE CHRISTENSEN

"The first car I ever owned was a 1988 Toyota Corolla. We called her the `Stretchmobile' because my nickname in high school was Stretch and my parents got ‘STRETCH’ for my license plates as a surprise for me. I had the Stretchmobile all through college, even after I was here my first year. It got totaled last year by my sister, though.

"The first time I drove it, I drove it back from Oregon. I bought it from my uncle. I drove it back and the air conditioning didn’t work."

MERCURY GUARD ANNA DeFORGE

"My first car was my dad’s beat-up, brown Chevy S-10. It was a stick. My parents were nice enough to let me take my driver’s test in their car, which was an automatic. The S-10 was not cute. I’ve gotten better in that area. The S-10 was already driven into the ground by the time I got it. I just took it a step further, well over 100,000 miles on it at the end. When you drove it, you could smell everything burning (laughs). I’d have to shut it down and let it cool off."

MERCURY FORWARD TAMARA MOORE

"My first car was a four-door Mitsubishi Gallant. It was cool since a lot of my friends in school didn’t have a car. I was like, 'Don’t hang out with me just because I have a car.' But it was nice. It had a tape deck. And then the car accident happened. I wasn’t in the car accident. My friends got in an accident and then I had to tell my mom what the situation was. The whole front end was smashed in. They didn’t tell me. I was at a softball game and they came and parked it where I couldn’t see the dent. I walked up and said, 'My car!' They said, 'Sorry.' My mom yelled at me, but she was understanding about the situation. She let me know I would never get another car unless I worked for it."