I like cars. Growing up, I spent my allowance on Hot Wheels and played with them a lot. In college, I actually identified people by what they drove. I know makes, models, and the year. For some reason, it just clicked…I know, random. On my 16th birthday in 1992, I got my license and hit the road with a 1979 Volkswagen Scirocco. It was a manual drive and a little unpredictable. It would occasionally skip 1st gear, which would leave me guessing if I would stall at any particular stop-light. It was also a 3-tone gray color that had worn to rust in a few places. It was perfect for a first time driver and since I was the only one of my group that had a license, no one made fun of my car – especially if they wanted to go anywhere with me!
My second car was a used sky-blue 1988 Mercury Tracer that I got my junior year of high school. I liked that car a lot and it was reliable. Once again, I hauled everyone around (including my boyfriend) because no one had their license yet. When I went off to Westmont, I left my Merc behind because there was no parking on campus for college freshmen. Darn. My younger sister then turned 16 and the car went to her. I was supposed to get it back but she had thoroughly bonded with it, so my parents gave me Dad’s 1983 fire-engine red Volkswagen GTI. It was older, but by far my favorite car I have ever owned because it had so much power. That car took many missions trips to Mexico and went to Colorado and back with me. By college graduation, it lost the fire-engine red lustre and the ceiling fabric would flap up and down in the breeze…it was old. I was sad when we turned it in for a used gold 1995 Saturn SL1 (”Goldie”). I needed something a little more reliable and more professional-looking as I entered the workforce.
Soon after entering the workforce, I met and married Garth. We had his silver 1999 Honda Civic hatchback and “Goldie” until I got pregnant (Not planned, but welcomed!). We needed cash immediately so we sold the Honda to his brother and had one car for a while. Garth rode his bike to work on certain days so Madeline and I could go to play dates and wander about town. When Madeline was 1, my grandma offered us her princess white 1984 Chrysler 5th Avenue with the faux convertible top. We snatched it up and were grateful to have another vehicle (no matter how much pride was sacrificed). It was fun to watch Garth cruizin’ in that beauty. Madeline was perched on her throne in the middle of the back seat. We just felt like royalty! The 5th Avenue lasted us about a year, and after a series of breakdowns – and a broken wind-shield wiper in a rainstorm on the freeway – we paid $150 to never see the vehicle again. We were back to one car and Garth worked from home by then. After Owen was born, we bought a used Saturn Vue and it did the trick for our growing family. Then, we made some dumb decisions with vehicles. We gave “Goldie” to a friend and bought a 2002 VW Jetta with 87,000 miles on it. Then we traded in a perfectly good Vue and bought our brand new Mazda 5. Since then, we have kept those vehicles and, having learned from our dumb decisions, we will run them into the ground.
So, in the 17 years I have been driving, I have had 9 vehicles. That seems like a lot, but we’re slowing the pace now…and hopefully the cars we have will last us a while.
