Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Giving Car

When I drove this Explorer off the lot in 1995, I couldn't have been happier.  It was the first brand new car I had ever driven.  I felt safe and smug as as drove down the highway in my oh-so-special car.

My history with cars isn't great.  As teenagers, my sibs and I shared a string of very used cars.  One Ford was famous for the passenger-side door that swung open when you made a sudden left turn.  But gas cost about 35 cents a gallon and we lived in a small town, so we just made lots of right turns.

I had a used VW bug that I adored as I finished college.  It was the first car I owned.  The wind whistled through the front (engine in the rear) on cold days but it was intrepid.  And you could park that puppy anywhere.  Believe me, I did.

For a while I drove a little Datsun that backfired so loudly when you shifted on winter mornings that it set off all the car alarms up and down the street.  I took a wicked pleasure in waking neighbors in the Denver neighborhood I drove through on my way to work.   If I was up, they should be too.

But the Explorer was a good family car.  It only stayed new until the first time the kids dumped pop all over the backseat, which they managed to both do it the same day.  How is that possible?  And soon reports surfaced about tires exploding and roll overs at high speed.  Hey, nothing is perfect.  We had lots of good trips to the lake and back.  It hauled lots of groceries, plants and made trips to the lumber yard.

When our son, D, turned 16, he became the driver of the car we now called The Exploder.  It mostly went to school and home.  Cautious describes his driving style for those first few years.  He added some stickers to the back window to mark his territory but otherwise, left it unscathed.

When he left for college, the famous Exploder passed on to E, our daughter.  Her driving style at 16 was interesting, to put it mildly.  Instead of stickers, she added dents.  Somehow the garage was never a big enough target for her.   Every week seemed to bring a new addition to the car.  By this time, we were resigned to using it as a practice vehicle.  It was safe, it was dirty.  Better to practice on this one.

E got better. She is now a responsible driver.  And the Exploder?  Like the 'Giving Tree', it has given its all, but not quite.  We are still wringing a little more use out of it up at the lake.

I have to admit that, as bookseller, I really don't like that book.  I mean, what is the point? Let someone take advantage of us until we are used up?  Or that it is OK to do that to someone else? Don't ask me.  But looking at the rusty old Exploder parked out back, I couldn't help but tip my hat to Shel Silverstein.

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