About the car

Yes, like I was broken up last year when my Volvo, which I had driven from new because it was the company car that I had with Telxon, finally was not worth repairing. Volvos go on forever, but why did mine only mange 143,000 miles. When I was made redundant it had done 120k, and I bought it for 1400£ from the company. A year or so before that I could have traded it in as the company usually traded in cars at anywhere between 60k and 80K, but because it ran well and didn't cost anything in repairs I asked to keep it. Carl I remember had a big bill for replacement cars that year so was pleased when I offered to keep it.

But the cost of repairs to keep it legal on the road was more than the value of the car, so the garage scrapped it for me. It was an old friend, very comfortable, even if the air conditioning didn't work, one of the headlampp washers had been ripped off by vandals, many of the dashboard lights were dead, and the rear wheel well was rusting out. Poke the pedal and it jumped. It had taken me all over the country and had done so many trips to universities carting Madeleine's and Michael's goods back and forth.

Well, the replacement Toyota Yaris is also automatic, has a CD player, no boot to speak of, and is also silver. The air conditioning works. I won't need it if I get made redundant.

I actually look forward to getting back on the bicycle. The Yaris can stay in the garage except for important occasions.

Peter

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From: V.E. Merchant
Sent: 01 May 2008 22:05
Subject: Fw: thoughts

The Deed is done! For the first time in forty-two years I don’t have a car. Wives and girlfriends and lovers will come and go, and we get a hurt a bit and we recover, but a man forms a true sentimental attachment to his car. The car that I just sold took me to Virginia where I worked for four months, it took me twice to Charleston South Carolina to visit my daughter, and twice to Jacksonville Florida for exciting technical conferences. Then we traveled together over the rugged Appalachian mountains to Dayton, and a while later westward again through St. Louis, past all the poor dust farms in Oklahoma and Northern Texas, over the Mojave desert to Southern California. From our California home, there were numerous trips to the Anza Borrega Desert State Park, the rarefied atmosphere of Mount San Jacinto, and the Santa Anna Ecological Preserve. Then we went together, the car and I, northward through California, up the windswept Oregon coastline, and through the Orchards of Washington and the Okanagan valley to Vernon.

The trip to Kamloops where the car was sold gave me time to reflect about other cars that I’ve owned. The very first one was when I was one of three University students that contributed thirty dollars each to buy a ninety dollar 1956 Pontiac. I had a blow-out near Hedley while driving over the mountains to Vancouver; getting the tire replaced more than doubled my investment in the car. I had that car when I overcame my teenage shyness and actually went out with girls, with sweet Cathy and sensible Glenys and sensitive Leslie. Then while in Graduate school, I bought the Ford Cortina in which we went on many camping trips to Lake Huron, and a vacation to Cape Breton island. We crossed the country in that sturdy machine, but then the faithless car left me along with my first wife. It was replaced by a zippy Ford Fiesta, and an unreliable Honda Lemon - my young daughter asked, it that’s a toe truck, where are its toes? There was a short term fling with a $300 red Dodge Dart with rusted out floor boards. After more adventures, I bought the bright red jeep that my wife called the "second childhood car", taken from me in a devastating accident. The car that I just sold was bought from the resulting insurance money, seven years ago. And now it is gone.

Not just gone, but sold for a few lousy dollars. I feel degraded, like a pimp, selling off my companions for a little bit of money.

Like goes on. My wife will have to use her great and wonderful powers of tenderness, comfort, and affection to help me get over the loss of my companion for these last years.


Vivian