With Babak Aminit

With my uncle Farhad.  He was my mother’s only brother and had a passion for motor cars.  He is wearing an army uniform of his military-service days.  He died in 1995 at the age of 67. 

I had my first experience behind the wheels of a car at the age of 6, when I stole his car keys and not knowing how to stop the car, ran into a mound of watermelons which our neighborhood grocer was selling down our road.

For a few weeks after the incident, my uncle found melon seeds and skins in his beloved 1949 yellow convertible Buick.  He soon after began teaching me to drive and since my legs were too short to reach the pedals, he made me wooden extensions, which I wore on my feet!