My Favorite Ride: 'Maggie's car' keeps mother and sons connected through Pontiac Catalina

Around the southern Indiana town of Odon, some people still recognize this 1968 Pontiac Catalina as "Maggie's Car."

It was white more than half a century ago, back when it was new. Maggie Vaught bought the two-door hardtop sedan at the local General Motors dealership with proceeds from her husband's insurance policy after he died in 1968.

He had selected the car for his soon-to-be widow and their six kids, five boys and a girl. Maggie Vaught drove the car until her death in 1975, when it got passed down to her youngest son, Dennis.

In 1991, Dennis called his older brother, whose name is Harold but everyone calls him "Brownie," and said he would have a present for him at the annual family cookout on Memorial Day weekend.

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"I walked in where the cookout was and he tossed me the keys," Brownie Vaught told me when I met him and the car.

"I'd pestered my brother for 10 years trying to buy it, and then he gives it to me. I'm pretty sentimental about this kind of stuff and I think he knew I would restore it right."

The car had spent a few years stored in a barn and needed some work. Vaught hauled it home to Morgan County, where he spent six years, and $14,000, restoring the vehicle to its original state.

Most of the work he did himself.

"I took the engine apart and put it back together," he said, teaching himself along the way. "I'd only done simple stuff like brakes before."

He had the car painted powder blue, "because I like powder blue," and hired someone to replace the upholstery. He recently prepped a few areas on the car for some refresher paint.

He limits the miles he puts on the car to about 2,000 a year; the odometer is at 186,000. When I saw the car in Martinsville recently, it was out on the road for the first time in more than a year.

Vaught had just installed a new battery, polished the chrome and set off. "This car drives like it's brand new," he said. 

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Once in awhile, he drives back home to Odon, where the car spent its first few decades. People there know the Vaught family, and some remember that Catalina. "A few times, when I've been going down the street, I've heard someone say, 'There's Maggie's car.'"

I admit a nostalgic partiality for this year, make and model of car. My family's first new car was a 1968 Pontiac Catalina, blue like this one is now, a 4,400-pound V-8 station wagon we bought and drove from Indianapolis to San Diego to visit my Uncle Dale, Aunt Patsy and some cousins.

We also drove all that way so my grandmother could see an ocean for the first time. I remember her pulling the hem of her dress above the water as waves crashed at her knees.

That Pontiac also was my first car when I turned 16, which launched the giant 9-seater station wagon to new adventures.

My friends and I would pool our coins, buy $2 worth of gas and cruise the night away. The Eagles, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Starship, Heart and Crosby Stills Nash and Young blared from speakers attached to a cheap 8-track tape deck mounted under the glovebox that I bought at GC Murphy with my employee discount.

Like Vaught, I'm pretty sentimental about this kind of stuff. Great times. Great car.

Have a story to tell about a Pontiac Catalina, or any kind of car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.