(hope I spelled that right?) As Jerry and I were having breakfast this morning, we got into the topic of trying to list the various cars we've had through our 44 years together. Our first car was the brand new little red Pontiac Tempest I had when we got married. I bought that car from Rebbec's for $3500 (I think) with help from Wilber Boies at the Gridley Bank who loaned me the entire amount when I was student teaching in Springfield. Mr. Boies let me delay payments from April until June when I had a summer job lined up with Country Companies and the hope that I would find a teaching job in September. As some of you remember, we got married that summer and both got teaching jobs in September - me in Coal City and Jerry in Dwight. Three years prior to that I bought a blue/white Ford from Lynn with some money that Dad had put in a savings account for me and Mother paying for the remaining amount. That car served me well through my college days - and as I recall, Jerry kept it parked at his off-campus house and would bring it to me any time I needed it or to pick me up for a date.
We have fond memories of both those cars. From there on it was more difficult to remember - and our memories were often in conflict!! While we agree on most of the cars, we cannot remember dates and/or where we lived with each car. We went from a one-car family to a 5-car family when the kids were all driving and/or in college. Jerry always says that our mechanic loved Christmas Break when the kids all came home from college and we had all five cars serviced. We had Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Fords, Mercurys. We got into quite a conversation that brought back many memories of our life together by thinking of things we did and places we went with each car.
We decided - and give this advice to you younger people - that it would be a good idea to take a picture of your family beside each car you have and record it with a date, place, etc. so that someday when you are old and half-senile (or maybe just 1/4 senile) you won't have to argue over it, you can just look at the picture album you have already created. We plan to dig through our old picture box when we get home to see if we can settle some of our arguments about the cars. :) :)
The memories we had this morning were great including the time that a mouse got in our car, climbed under the dash and died -- Jerry took the entire car apart to find the mouse which was creating a very disgusting odor; or the ugly brown car that I hated from day one; the old car his mom gave him when she quit driving and once a year he opened all the doors and hosed the car down, inside and out; and just a variety of vacations we took, fender-benders, vandalism, etc.
I'm sure you have some good memories to share also.
5 comments:
My third car was a white Dodge Neon. I was in an accident with another white Dodge Neon. She turned in front of me, and we ended up with mirror-image damage. When I got my insurance check, we went to the dealer. And all they had in my price range were white Dodge Neons! No one even knew I had a new car!
When we lived in Wyoming, Il. as young marrieds, we had a car that I drove that had a low
undercarriage...and a road leading to town with lots of potholes. We replaced the oil pan maybe 3 times on that car. Dave bought a van a few years ago by phone. The night before we had driven to the dealership in the rain in the dark after they were closed. He picked out the "grey one" and called them the next morning and told a salesman he wanted that van. They said there wasn't a grey one, but a "sierra green" one. Dave said, "If it's the one on the end of the row, that's it and I'll pick it up at the end of the day. Done!
We have lots of memories of cars we've had, and both good and bad decisions in car purchases. When we first got married we sold my car and shared Sam's vehicle while he was in Med school. Grandpa Ralph said "If you want to bring your family closer, get a smaller car." It was true - we had to get along if we were dependent on each other for transportation.
When our schedules changed and we needed another car, Sam's dad let us borrow a huge white Lincoln and I made Sam drive it. When it was cold the hood wouldn't latch completely down and it would bob up and down (about 3 inches) as you would drive. I remember him picking me up at State Farm in it once and I was mortified.
My favorite car was a little red Geo Metro we named 'Gordo'. It was a stick shift and I was so proud of myself for being able to actually drive it. When we found out we were going to have a baby we had to trade it because it didn't have air conditioning and we couldn't fit a car-seat in the backseat.
Our current van we bought online from North Carolina without even seeing it. We FedEx'd the payment and paperwork to them and they delivered it on a flatbed semi to our front-door. Our neighbors enjoyed watching that from their windows.
What a fun topic to reminisce (sp?) about!
The summer I graduated from college I began looking for a car. I knew I wanted a Ford Escort, and my Dad and I looked all over north Alabama looking for one. Near the end of July I was getting concerned about not having found the right one as I was going to be moving to IL in just a few weeks. At Wednesday church Melanie Dutton (some of you know the Duttons) told me as we were walking out, "I'm going home to pray that you find the perfect car!"
That night I found a used Escort wagon in the classified ads. I called and the next day Dad and I drove it, and he helped me negotiate the purchase of it. I wasn't real excited about it being a wagon, but it fit all of my other requirements.
26 days later which was 6 days after I had loaded it with all my stuff to move to Morton, I had an accident and totalled the car.
I always thought God was good to have me get a car that would fit all of my possessions for moving and then after I got to Illinois I was able to get a new Escort that was more suitable to a young person's like ie: not a small station wagon.
Since then there has been a Honda Accord hatchback that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to drive smoothly leaving the lot for a test drive because I was still learning to drive stick shift; then a red Mitsubishi Eclipse made in Bloomington (or Normal?), a Honda CR-V, and now a Honda Fit.
When I think of the various cars we've had over the years, the first one that comes to mind was a very bad decision on our part. We LEASED a 1996 Mitsubishi Galant when I worked at BSC and soon afterwards found out we were going to have our third child, and realized we were going to very quickly go over the milage allowance by a BUNCH. We worked out a deal with Tim Leman to get into to a used van and out of the lease. I think, with the 2009 Dodge van we purchased this year, we have finally stop rolling from the Lease in 1996. That's right 13 years to get out of a bad decision.
By far though, my favorite car was the used Dodge Dynasty that was the first car that Retta and I bought together as a married couple. We traded in Retta's powder blue Ford Escort and we thought we had finally made it to the big time. I can still remember our first trip back to Illinois from Alabama with the our "new" car. When we pulled into the Bloomington AC church parking lot, Big E (Earl Steffen) met us in the parking lot and asked "What's this?". I quickly bragged about our new car, explaining how good of a deal we got, etc. As only Earl would put it, he said: "I don't care about the car, I meant your good looking wife, Retta. I didn't know you were going to be here." Oops (For those of you who knew Earl, you'll recognize I paraphrased a bit there)
What is hardest to believe though is that we will be buying Adrian her first car this summer. Wow, where has the time gone. Another set of adventures begin!! EDK
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