A week or so ago I gave Vonda a ride to Three Hats Coffee and then home in our little red car. Several times that evening we had to pull over to the side of the road to restart the engine because it completely lost acceleration--something that had been happening for a few months now with increasing frequency. "No problem," I assured her, "this same thing happened to us last year and it only cost about $100 to fix." As I pulled away from her house I could tell she was genuinely worried that I wouldn't make it home, especially without a cell phone.
We finally got it checked out today after a few incidences of it not starting at all and frequent sluggishness in crossing intersections (yikes!). The verdict: she's a goner. After first telling Brian that "we have people who can come and pick up cars like this one," the shop receptionist explained that my poor little 1992 Dodge Shadow ES turbo has multiple organ failure--transmission and head gasket. A mere $3500-5000 would cure her, but let's face it...she's telling us she's had enough.
My first car will be sent off for parts on Monday. Got her from my dad when I was a giddy little college junior. Loved to use that turbo engine to accelarate as quickly as possible to the posted speed limits near Bethel College. Beautiful red color, in the tradition my dad had of driving little red cars back when I was a just a young girl riding on the armrest next to him and helping him shift. Had a great stereo system til I blew it out. Fun automatic window controls cleverly located in a place that could be used to freak out naive 8th grade girls (ie Katie Olson!) in the back seat whom I convinced that the car was possessed. Only one major repair in the 11 years I had her. What a great car!
The first time I saw her was when my Dad drove her up from Sacramento to Portland (10 hours!) to see me perform with the Bethel Concert Band. I was so excited driving around the city that night with him, anticipating when she would be mine. The first summer I had her my best friend Dee and I drove down to Kansas City to order my new flute for which I'd been waiting 2 years. This was the car that whisked Brian and I away from our wedding stuffed full with balloons, Fruit Loops littering the floor, and Wacky Noodles hanging out the windows. The next day we drove up to the North Shore for our Honeymoon. Good memories. You never forget your first car, right?
Tomorrow we'll clean her out and say goodbye. And since we're now going to try to be a one-car family, we'll come home and wonder why in the world we just built a 2-car garage!
7 comments:
Did you name her? We had a Ford Ranger that was with us for over 16 years, from its first mile to the last. When our second son drove it in high school he named it 'William'. Joey is still perplexed when we reminisce about William. Looks at us quizically, figures it out and just shakes his head and mutters, "it was just a truck".
Actually, I did name her back in college. During the winter olympics back in 1994 my friend Jodie and I named our cars after one of the figure skating teams...mine was Torville and hers (an old Mustang) was Dean. The name Torville just didn't really stick, though.
By the way, congratulations, mother-in-law-to-be!!! :)
And Dee, I guess I never really thought about the Saturn being gone--it made me sad to read that!
Sorry to hear about the little red car! I could always tell if The Brain was at work. Now I will have to guess if it is you or him--either way a good thing!
When I was reading the blog--thanks for the new one by the way, I missed you--I thought of my first loved car..wonderful memories.
Hey,
My second car was a 1990 red Dodge Shadow! SUHWEET little ride it was!
If you want, you can use the Explorer. Park it at your house if you like - it doesn't need to be garaged so you still have to wonder about the 2-car thing.
Let me know.
Yes, I am too reminded of my first car. A yellow Pinto with black interior. I called it my "Styper" car; after that tacky eighties band, which I so loved at the time. It came with a AM radio, no tape player, and no heat. These were the years that I drove to college, an hours drive each way. I recall wearing a sleeping bag while driving and scraping the INSIDE of the front windshield from all the frost build up. I single-handedly pushed her out of the ditch at least six times. But it was my first car and those were the years that you put up with crap like that.
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