The New Yorker was my mom's car originally, and the only talking car I've ever had. "Your fuel supply is low." This was cutting edge technology once. I thought it was kind of cool, but eventually John disabled it.
It became my car after I drove my mom in it from Florida to Tucson and after she gave up driving. It became John's car after Mom got me a 1997 Saturn in 2001. It became an unused eyesore in the driveway when it started losing power on John's long commute circa 2004, and he replaced it with an Alero.
The major hold-up in the car donation process was that I hadn't been able to find the title to the New Yorker, despite many hours of searching through likely and unlikely boxes. Just before Christmas I went down to the MVD with the VIN and the license plate number to get a new title, but they said it had been so long since the car was registered that the title had been purged from their records. I was advised to get it towed to Motor Vehicles for inspection so they could issue a new title. Like THAT was going to happen.
But the nice man at the service that arranges vehicle donations to charity noticed that the Vehicle Identification Number I read off to him was one digit too long. He took out an extra 9 and the car came right up in the Carfax database. I went back to MVD and $4 later walked out with a new title. Several days after that, the tow truck arrived, this time at no cost to us!
If the New Yorker was a reminder of my mom, the van was a reminder of our year of great adventure in 1986. That may be overstating things, but certainly it was an amazing year for us. The Dodge Ram was integral to those experiences. John finally came into some money from a trust fund, and we were sick of Ohio; so we put everything in storage, bought a van, put a mattress in the back and drove around the country, looking for someplace it wasn't winter. Two months later, John was negotiating over a pay phone to buy our first house, a mile or so outside the Tucson city limits.
Bye-bye, Mom's car. Bye-bye, faithful van. Bye-bye, reminders of times long past. But the driveway looks a lot better without you.
Karen
Linking List
as of Midnight MST
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
Jama
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com
Sherrie
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/
Terri
Ways I See the World
http://teelgeephotos.blogspot.com/
1 comment:
It's sad to bid goodbye to them and remember how these cars have eventually become part of your lives with every journey you took with them. But just like the chapters of a book, there's always a new chapter after the old one. You can either have an unexpected reunion with your car or buy a new one.
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