I have been thinking about this for probably a week and a half. A first. I can't come up with anything, and I think that is my first. I've been able to babble on and on about a lot of these, and this time...nothing.
The biggest problem is I can't remember a lot of my firsts. My first birthday? Nope. My first date? Never truly been on one, unless you count a gay man taking me to dinner and dancing being on a date. My first house? Ummm, still live in the house I grew up in and now partially own it. My first car? That I can do!
Of course my first car is preceded by the time I first drove a car, and that's a pretty good tale.
I didn't have my permit yet, but I was going to have to get it soon and had read all the literature to take the test. Mom thought I should start off slow, so she drove her van to the end of the lane, got the paper and the mail, turned it around and had me drive back. I put the van in drive and gradually took my foot off the break. It started to move forward and I had the wheel in a white-knuckled death grip. The van continued to move down the driveway at an idling pace. If it was a movie you would've seen a snail on the side of the drive moving more quickly than I was. Mom said that I could put my foot on the accelerator and go a bit faster. I told her that this was fast enough. Bless her that she didn't laugh out loud. We made it back to the garage and instead of turning it around and parking it facing out like Mom usually does, I just pulled into the spot. Not in the garage of course.
So my first car. Fast forward to the Christmas after I had turned 16. I had only gotten my license in November because I was more than happy to be a passenger my whole life. My mom had said that there was no way I was getting a car of my own. I, after 16 years, knew how to propose things I wanted to her and that was with logic. I was in cheerleading and there were some late night away games that she would be driving in at 11 PM to pick me up from. Since she got up at 5 in the morning I thought that was a good selling point. The other was that I didn't want a brand new car, just something with wheels. She hadn't thought of that. I had scoured the used car ads in the newspaper and found a decent car for $800. (This was ridiculously cheap considering the computer I bought for college cost $2,000.) She was game. So my cousin David found a decent car in blue, cause I think that was my only request, and drove it down for Christmas.
What a car. It was a 1986 Dodge 600, making it only 4 years younger than me. It had sanded off places in the paint, for what reason I have no idea. The back windows would periodically inch their way down from going over the speed bumps in the school parking lot and I'd have to get in the back and roll them up. It. Was. Awesome.
I learned a lot of lessons in that car that I would have never had in a new one. Like the fact that the gauge on the dash with the thermometer on it does NOT tell you how warm it is inside the car. It actually tells you the temperature of the radiator and when it reaches H that is not good. Or the fact that when your car stalls out in the middle of an intersection it will not start when the gear shift is in drive. But if there are enough cars around you honking that you put the car in park and throw your head against the steering wheel and have a short cry and try again, it will start. There's also the fact if you open the back door after it has ice rained all night and don't shut it tightly enough it will fly open as you go around a corner and with adrenaline pumping through you as you open your driver's door and smack it closed with your hand you can effectively make it impossible to open again when you get to school. My favorite lesson was the one where I found out why anti-lock breaks are awesome. On another icy, snowy morning I was driving very slowly down the small hill before you get to the main road that takes you into town. As I pushed the break down slowly the car started to slide to the side. When I took my foot off the break the car righted itself again. I tried this a couple more times before I remembered Gram always talking about pumping the breaks. So I pumped them as quickly as I could and I did manage to stop before I ended up in the middle of the road at the bottom.
Eventually I did get a new car. It's been a very good car without any problems until recently. Granted it is 11 years old now. But all the things that were broken or wrong with my old car that made it endearing are just irritating and frustrating now. I hate buying cars so I would be happy if the next one lasted me as long as possible. And I eventually I plan on having kids, so something safe is required. But not a van...I'm just not a van type of person. I'd like something reliable in the snow because we have plenty of that in the winter. I first saw the car I really want on Top Gear. They featured this car in the snow and it performed pretty well. The car that I am smitten over is the Volvo XC90. I have it bad for that car. I've tried to look at Toyota Highlanders and Chevy Traverses, but I keep going back to that Volvo.
And I'd be buying this all by myself, which would be my next first.
1 comment:
That's a very pretty car. I've been smitten with Honda CRV's but that Volvo might just steal my heart :)
Post a Comment