We all have favorite toys as a child. Some love stuffed animals, others a Red Ryder BB gun, or perhaps a Radio Flyer red wagon. I must have been about four years old when I lost my favorite toy. We lived in Delano on Jefferson Street in the house with the porthole.

I used to have a blue pedal car – the kind you sat in and pedaled and steered. It was probably made of metal and had a complex steering mechanism. I have seen some on Antiques Roadshow that are very similar. I lived in a house with a long driveway so there was plenty of room to zoom up and down without having to go out to the sidewalk.

One day, it disappeared. It turned out that my parents had left some goods by the garage for the Salvation Army to pick up. Accidentally, my pedal car was by the garage, too. And we suppose that when the Salvation Army came to pick up the goods, they also took the car.

You can imagine, I was devastated that I had lost this car. I love driving today; I must have loved it when I was four. In fact, I believe that my early driving experience shaped my love for driving today.

My dad called the Salvation Army, and they actually brought a pedal car that they had picked up that week, but it was not the same car. It was green. And my dad, being the honest person he was, would not accept it. It looked like the lost car was lost forever.

Now, it is possible that someone in the town took my pedal car. It remains a mystery to this day. But sixty-seven years later, I still remember that car and how much joy it brought to a little boy in Delano, California.

(Pictured: Me at age 4 standing like I still do today.)