Car Shopping

Do you remember some of the cars you have bought over the years; some that you grew to love and others you hated because they turned out to be lemons? Memories of our automobiles seem to cling to us long after they have met their maker.

The smell of a new car. The feel of driving the shiny new vehicle off the lot after you had signed the papers. The vow that you will keep this one dent and scratch free. And the disgust when you got that first scratch.

And did you have a very, very favorite car of all the ones you have driven?

I remember the yellow Buick station wagon with the "wooden panels" and the tan interior. I drove many car pools with my children and their school buddies ,delivering them one by one to their homes, lightly honking the horn to let someone inside know they were home. At times the crowd in the station wagon would get way too boisterous and I would threaten to pull over to the side of the road and just sit there until order was restored. A few times I did just that.

Many years later, when my son was grown, and we were discussing days gone by and car pooling, son said, "You know what Mrs N did when she drove car pool and she wanted to keep us quiet? She told us if we were good and quiet she would take us to MacDonald's and she did and we were. She bribed us"

I guess I should have tried the "carrot" approach more and not the "stick" :)

Then there was the green Plymouth sedan my husband and little daughter, our first child, bought when I was in the hospital after giving birth to our second daughter. Back then children were not allowed into the hospital to see the new arrival (germ conscious I suppose) so hubby drove the new Plymouth and my little daughter to the parking lot under my window and showed me the present. Kind of sad that this car turned out to be a real lemon after such an auspicious start.

We owned many Buick's, a Caddy or two. One caddy, a light blue one, hummed right along for a short while and then it started to have electrical problems and we took it in to fix the problem. The dealer's shop tried and tried to fix it under warranty and then charged us and charged us and it was never fixed. We bought another car and kept the blue Caddy as a spare.

When my hubby worked in Washington, D.C. for 4 years, we drove Ole Blue to D.C. and wheeled around the nation's capitol in it. We had tried to give it to our daughter or son when they turned 16 and could drive but they were not willing to "be seen driving a clunker."

Once I was driving our dog, Mollie, a springer spaniel, to the vet for something routine. I took her in Ole Blue because I did not want her toenails to scratch up my newer car as she propped her paws on the door and held her head out the window while taking the breezes.

We were within two blocks of the vet's office when Ole Blue stopped on a very busy road and would not start again. I had no choice but to turn on the blinkers, abandon the car, put the leash on Mollie, and proceed to walk to the vets office. After dropping off the doggie, I headed back to the car to figure out what to do.

Just then I noticed two men across the street from the vet. They both were work men who were in the lot and I asked them how I could get my car towed. They said they would help me. The older man was going to get his son to push Ole Blue with his pick up truck up the busy, busy Lindberg Drive and I was to drive and steer the dead car until we approached the service station which was across 4 busy lanes of traffic on the other side of the road. I was to quickly "TURN INTO THE SERVICE STATION", all the while praying I did not get hit. I said "No way". I rode side saddle while the young man pushed and the older man drove my car. I shut my eyes as we approached the service station with the truck gaining enough speed to push us in.

The mechanic at the service station said I would have to leave my car overnight so they could fix it. "How can I get home?" The mechanic offered to drive me home, as I lived only about 5 miles away. I told him I would have to walk up and go get my dog at the vet's. He said get in his truck and he would take me to pick up Mollie.

Mollie reluctantly hopped up into the front seat beside me and the mechanic.I could tell she thought I had lost my marbles. She was shaking and rolling her big brown eyes at me as if she thought she might have to protect me during this ride.

All went well. Mollie and I arrived home safely. I tipped the kind mechanic who had driven us. I vowed to never again drive Mollie anywhere in Ole Blue.:)
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PS:( some years later the electrical problem was fixed in our driveway in about an hour by our son's highschool friend who had recently graduated from MIT and was extremely handy.)

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With all the autos you have owned in mind, go and visit Claude and watch the video about old cars.

(click on title of this post and travel to Blogging in Paris then click "Watch This"