People of FordPinto.com, I have been a happy member of this site since it's inception. A few years ago I read about a "Mustang Love Story." It was about a guy that met a girl that drove a mustang. So did he. They fell in love and birds sang, blenders were purchased, tuxedos were rented and contracts were signed. Sure that's a nice story. Let me tell you a better one. I love the Ford Pinto. I will take on any neigh sayers any time. It helps that I am a 6'-3" football player that wrote a twenty page paper on the ethics, the engineering & the propaganda of the Ford Pinto case. No one talks bad about a Pinto on my watch. Why do I love the car? Well it was my grandfathers 1974 Pinto that made me fall in love with the little horse. When I was 16 I went out and by accident found my own. A complete an utter turd of a '79 Pinto Squire that spat a pine needle in my eye, stalled in an intersection, started to smoke and broke down...all on the test drive. So of course I bought it. I drove it all through highschool looking, well, like this:

I knew that she would eventually be perfect. You just had to look at her 4th dimensionally. Finally I did restore her and drove her all through college looking like this:

While in college, everyone knew of the bright red Pinto running around the school. One day in 1999, a friend of mine called me. He had literally chased down a restored purple 1979 Pinto wagon full of girls and called me to come meet the owner. I didn't believe him but drove over anyway. I happened to have a camera with me:

This was the moment we met. We talked for many years after that but all the while, we were both seeing people. In fact, we even met up once in northern California at a car show. I posted that on here 7 years ago (thanks Cookieboy)
http://www.fordpinto.com/local-meets-car-shows-and-cruses/remember-what-i-said-about-girls-and-pintos/The event that finally brought us together was our mutual love of Harrison Ford and the Indiana Jones movie franchise. I promised her I would drive up so that we could see the movie together. Well, I drove up and never left. Now we are getting married. Take a look at our save the date post card we made (C.O. RacerX):

I have said for many years now, the Pinto has made me more close friends than anything before. These cars (as with many lesser known brethren) have a mystique about them. Everyone you meet that owns one is real; they aren't living under a facade of happiness about their car. Most truly love their cars and are always thrilled to meet a fellow Pinto owner.
As for the two little '79 wagons that brought us together, let it be known that without those cars, who knows where we would be. One thing is for certain, we would never have met.
Now that's a story.
P.S. Our wedding website has a great version of this story:
http://www.weddingwire.com/kristinandalberto