Daughter number one stopped by last weekend to show off her new car. It is a white VW bug convertible. The car just suits her and has been named “Doodlebug.” Seeing her in it made me think about the car our family owned that just suited us.
When our girls were teenagers, just starting to drive, we decided to buy a bigger car, maybe a van. One day my husband and father-in-law decided to go see what they could find. That afternoon they brought home our new family car, a bright, fluorescent orange twelve-passenger van. When the girls saw it they ran into their room and cried. “How could we do this to them? That was the ugliest, orangest vehicle they had ever seen. It was embarrassing. They would never be seen in that thing!” I was quieter, but, well, it was just so very orange. They did eventually get in, but they lay down on the seats so no one could see them. My husband loved it. “It’s great! I can see that orange van anywhere in the parking lot. We’ll never have to remember where we parked.” The orange van gradually made its way into all of our hearts. In the age before seatbelt laws it could hold the entire church youth group on its outings. Our girls learned to love driving the orange van. They and their friends went everywhere in that car. When I got to drive it carloads of teenagers would honk and wave at big orange. Perhaps it’s just as well that I don’t know all the memories that were created in that van full of teenagers. All four of our children learned to drive in that orange twelve-passenger van. It was a wonderful car.
What cars have you owned that just suited you?
7 comments:
I can still remember going out to buy my very first car. My only two requirements were that I wanted any color but white AND it had to be a sedan. That first car turned out to be a white station wagon. For my next car, I absolutely wanted a silver car. That 2nd car turned out to be a brown hatchback. I've had cars since but I'm still waiting for the one that actually defines me.
That is certainly an easy to spot vehicle. What a great photo! A car that defines me? I had a fun car in college, a Triumph Spitfire and a more family friendly and responsible car now in my Maxima. I guess my cars have fit my roles in life.
I LOVE the picture!!! All the kids and their parents were outside after the youth council meeting admiring your daughter's new car, they were all wondering who's it was. Somehow we knew it was hers--you're right, it suits her. My best car? A fire engine red Ford EXP two seater....Boy, I loved that car..
I now drive a black VW bug with a sticker on the window that says, "Well-behaved women rarely make history".
I like what my Prius says about me (even if it does run out of gas from time to time) but I do have many great memories from that van that I learned to love.
I had a 1958 Chevy DelRay that was a clunker, but it was my very first car. It was stolen right after it had new brakes and tires. The jerks took everything including the brakes and left it on blocks. That is some stunner of a van.
I love that Farrah-do on that daughter of yours!
I still mourn the loss of my first self purchased honda civic 5-speed I vowed to "drive it into the ground" but it got hit in its prime.
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