a huge part of my life has left me.
we were young silly fiercely independent teens when we met and even though we grew apart for a while, we stayed together. she was a constant in my life. As i went through phases and moods trying to figure myself out, she stood by me. I was very lucky for that. There were mornings I wished she was gone from my life, very cold, frost covered mornings. Mornings where I was running late and she was not running at all. I would gently coax her to a hill, put all my weight on her and start running, put her in second, hope no one was at the next intersection, and pop the clutch- never failed! and then realizing i had not scraped the ice off the windshield.
Now she is someone else's joy, and burden (good luck in Arizona! she does not like it over 94 degrees). After nearly 16 years together, my precious 1974 Volkswagen Thing has gone to a new home. Her new family really wanted her, to fly from Phoenix and transport her back. I hope they love her half as much as I do, but wash her more often. Sixteens years together, a lifetime.
It's the car I really learned to drive in, stuff you don't learn in Driver's Ed. Like pulling into on coming traffic to pass a slow car, backing up across the mall parking lot to check out boys, hopping curbs and medians to avoid traffic and the art of running stop signs. I truly believe police radar cannot pick up the color yellow, I know we were going over 65mph. Maybe the cops just liked her, we were pulled over dozens of times and never ticketed, once going down a one-way street the wrong way, for a few blocks.
We were the one car parade, seeing people smile at the sight of a 70's yellow convertible, and seeing the envy of the consumers in their flashy expensive sports cars, knowing that they cannot buy this kind of happiness. Friendly waves everywhere, even from the guy tailgating me on Mo-Pac.
Once a man in a vintage Jaguar at a car wash asked me, "what's next?" and i could only reply, "this is it, the one and only". Then he gave me his number and said to call if i ever consider selling her, at the time I could only laugh in response.
This is not an end of an era, just a hiatus. There is still only one car I have ever wanted.
6 years ago
1 comment:
That time the police stopped us, there must have been 7 girls without seatbelts on hanging out of her -- plus one stupid comment to the policemand about donuts and coffee. My life was also stolen out of her, as she sat waiting for us in a parking lot off 6th street. And she also had that minute of fame, in Dazed and Confused - when I think she got paid more than me.
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