Butler County Ford's Cathy Glasgow shows off her 2005 Thunderbird, that she bought in 2011. It is the first car she's ever owned.

There's a lot of common mileposts in this world, but nothing puts people's hearts into overdrive like talking about their first ride.

“I think everybody enjoys that first bit of freedom,” said Lori Korn of Butler. “That's really your first taste of adulthood and getting to feel independent. I think that's what makes it so special.”

Korn's Chevy S-10 features a two-tone partitioned paint job, separated by a string of star decals that run horizontally from its front to rear fenders.

She said the truck also features air ride, which is a crowd-pleaser. Most people are shocked, Korn said, when they find out she owns the truck.

“It gets some attention. The main thing is, people don't expect a girl to be driving it,” she said. “They expect it to be my husband's or my Dad's. No it's mine.”

Korn said her father bought her a beat up truck when she became old enough to drive, and she still owns it to this day.

“I got it for my 16th birthday,” Korn said. “It was actually in a car wreck. Instead of totaling it, my Dad and I put all this work into it and turned it into a father-daughter project, and here we are now.”

Having driven the truck throughout high school and beyond, Korn can't imagine parting.

“That is planning to stay with me forever. For as long as I can,” Korn said. “Now we just like taking it to car shows and putting work into it. It's our little project.”

For Cathy Glasgow, owner of Butler Ford, owning a vehicle didn't cross her mind until 2011, when she bought a red 2005 Thunderbird.

Glasgow said through high school and college she wasn't allowed to have a car.

In high school, it was her parents' restriction, but she was allowed to borrow her father's old Ford Falcon to get to her summer jobs.

“It had no power steering and no radio,” she said. “Not every car had air conditioning and power windows like they do today.”

Later, when Glasgow attended Duquesne, the school had rules against students bringing vehicles because of parking concerns.

“There was no place to put one, so you weren't allowed,” she said.

After college, she borrowed a new or used vehicle from the dealership, until her red Thunderbird came along.

But, even though she bought the Thunderbird and likes her the car, she's not overwhelmed with affection for her first vehicle.

“I'm a car dealer,” Glasgow said. “They're all just cars. Since you're in the business you just deal with it.”But for many, that first ride — or the second — is more than just a mode of transportation.Dan Cunningham, publicist for the Rodfathers Club, said his first vehicle was a light gray 1948 Ford Flathead, which he got at age 16, but most people he knows would remember his 1956 Oldsmobile, which he bought shortly after.“I called it a 'lead sled' because it was so heavy,” he said. “It was a convertible, so that was pretty good fun.”Cunningham said some of his favorite memories were of taking his “lead sled” to the drive-ins of the Bon Aire area.“Like Happy Days, you could pull in and order from your car,” Cunningham said. “Drive in movies. All that good stuff.”Bruce Toth, mayor of Eau Claire borough, said he will always remember the passion that his first vehicle inspired.Toth owned a 1969 Dodge Superbee, colored a pale yellow with black vinyl roof, black interior, bumblebee stripes on the back.Toth said his father bought him the car as a gift, since he intended to bypass trade school and head straight into the workforce.He said his mother even crafted him some bumblebee-themed pillows and blanket for the back seat.“She hand-sewed it. I still have them somewhere,” Toth said.A mechanic, he owned the vehicle for a few years, working on it and found his way into racing.“It was a pretty fast car. We used to race on the street back then,” Toth said. “I ran her pretty hard. I put four clutches in it and 11,000 miles.”He said after seeing what his vehicles could do, people wanted to buy them. So he sold the Superbee for another sports car, and then another, until he found that throughout his life, he had a revolving door of fast vehicles.“I had people waiting for them, whenever I was done with them,” Toth said. “I started doing my own engine work, and I turned that into an engine and cylinder work business.”Toth still continues to building performance engines to this day, but his first will always be the Superbee.“It was well-known around here for probably being the fastest car,” he said.

Lori Korn and her father fixed up this Chevy S-10 when she was 16, and she still owns and drives the truck.