Well, yesterday was my 1000th post and what the heck did I post about? Going to Ikea? It’s okay, that’s only my 1000th post within the framework of Wordpress. I rolled my own for a few years before I finally dragged my blahg into 21st century technology, so it’s probably more like the 2500th or thereabouts.
I can’t really blahg about what I wanna blahg about today. I’m sorry. I’m so close to the finish line but I just have that little bitsy bit to go. I can’t do it. So, since vee-hickular trauma has been on the brain in one form or another for the last week or so, I’m gonna list the vee-hickles I’ve known. Too bad the Ol’ Boy isn’t around in a form where he can easily correct me.
Anyway. The Old Black Ford. I don’t know what year that thing was. It was there when I was born. I remember taking rides down to St. Ignace to watch them build the Mackinac Bridge (yes, I really remember that) or down to the locks. I don’t know if the Ol’ Boy would remember that vee-hickle or not.
The ‘57 Ford. Two-tone. White and light green. Memories of that vee-hickle mainly include something about the Old Coot taking it to the Ford dealer to have a persistent problem with one of the doors fixed and they kept fixing the muffler. Go figger.
1962 (or 61?) Corvair. Not a particularly reliable vee-hickle. Almost couldn’t get home from Funny Grandaddy and Bolette’s house in Day-Twa once. Several years after we got rid of it, we figured out that one of my high school boyfriends had bought it. Not from us though. He didn’t have it by the time I knew him. He was driving a Gremlin by then. ‘member those?
Lemme think. VW Bug in about 1966 and Pontiac Tempest in around 1968. I remember the bug well but the Tempest was my driver’s license vee-hickle. No power steering, folks.
We “inherited” Grandma’s 1965 (?) Ford Fairlane in about 1970 or so when she gave up driving. That put us up to three vee-hickles. For most families like mine, that was a lot in those days. I got in my one and only wreck (knock on wood) in that Fairlane, on glare ice right in front of the funeral home. It was not my fault.
A second VW Bug came in the late 60s and I learned to drive stick in that vee-hickle by convincing The Commander that the only way I could learn it (besides going out driving with my not-very-patient pilot father) was to just *drive* it, already. I stalled once in the intersection of Ashmun and Easterday and never again.
There was a fancy Buick in there somewhere and the blasted Ford Pinto wagon that I ended up with. I think I have blocked what model year that thing was but it turned out to be a total piece of crap. Rusted out like crazy and left me on the side of the freeway more than once. *Not* a good vee-hickle for a young woman.
Ford Fiesta! 1979! My first *new* vee-hickle. $5000. Remember those days? Ran into the GG shortly after that. He was driving a crappy old Gremlin (’member those?) and after his moom had rescued him with a jump about one too many times, he took a cue from me and bought a Fiesta! 1980. Those vee-hickles became Mama’s Little Gold Car (mine) and Daddy’s Little Blue Car (the GG’s) and The Orange Car lived down the street.
VW Jetta. 1985. When we decided that we were dead tired of dealing with a baby and a two-door vee-hickle.
Plymouth Voyager minivan. 1989. When we decided, after a summer of babies and persistent 100-plus temperatures and no A/C anywhere, to buy our first air-conditioned vee-hickle.
The Indefatigable! 1992. It’s first name was “My Midlife Crisis” (not *mine*, the GG’s). Rear-ended on the southbound I75 SUV Speedway when it was three months old and still going.
Plymouth Voyager minivan. 1996. Lemon. Yes, the old POC. Never left me on the side of the road like the blasted Pinto did. Just nickel and dime. Nickel and dime. Still. It was a beautiful vee-hickle and I cried when we sold it.
Honda Accord. 2001. My GM engineer bro’ (The Ol’ Boy) steered me toward this “foreign” automobile and I am still driving it. With love.
Honda Civic. 2005. Our newest vee-hickle. We bought it days after my brother died. He knew we were fixing to buy one and his last email message to me had the subject “Wheels?”
In the pic is the 2001 Honda Accord. When it was new. The Ol’ Boy was skeptical that we could obtain this particular vee-hickle quickly, so when we did, I posted that pic. His reaction? Something like “Holy shit! Where’d you get that?” Bwa-ha-ha. You can see my old blue 1996 Voyager in the background.
What kind of vee-hickles do y’all remember?