Yarn in the back and sliiiiiip stitch. Turn your work a-roouund.
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?
August 18th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I remember that ’71 (or was it ’72??) Buick LeSabre!! It hit a deer on the Seney Stretch as “Frack & Jan” (LOL) were heading over for Jim’s & my combo wedding & graduation! Killed the deer (we saw it – in the ditch with legs in the air – on the way over to the Soo after all the ceremonies were completed and got moved out of our various housings), but the car only suffered a bit of a bend in the METAL grill (if it were plastic – like current models – there’d’ve been a ton more damage). Word was, the cost of replacing/repairing the grill effectively “totalled” the car – it was 9-10 years old at that time!!
The 1968 Beetle!! Zenith Blue. The Ol’ Boy actually bought a duct-tape-and-baling-wire Gremlin to drive in the Houghton winters so that the Beetle could stay cozy in storage (?!?!) back in the Soo!. He sold it in Chillicothe, OH, with 130,000 miles on the clock and the original clutch! Did he let me *drive* it?!?! One time, that I can recall, and that was when the Chevette blew its timing chain and the Beetle was the ONLY running car (I don’t recall what the 3rd car was at that snapshot of time, but it also wasn’t running for some-reason-or-another).
You missed the Skyhawk – I think you were driving it at one time…was that when the Pinto finally gave up the ghost? Then The Ol’Boy came down from the Soo to deliver whatever car to you and return the Skyhawk by way of a detour to E-ville for supper with my family. Guess he really pushed the speed limits heading home from there, cuz he said the car never put out any heat (yeah, it was during winter break, I think). That’s when he gave me my very first Moosewood Cookbook ( 🙂 ). Got my Mom worried that she’d fed meat to a vegetarian!!! [I had to laugh, knowing how much he enjoyed beef!]
August 18th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
um, the “it” that was sold in Chillicothe was the Beetle. The Gremlin was long gone before then! Replaced by a Dodge Omni “Eurosedan”.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Jim did recommend the Volkswagen Jetta.
I was scoping out the Honda Accord before Jim made a recommendation.
I think Jim must have been reading my mail.
I sometimes think Karen is reading my mail too…
(more about this later)
August 18th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I did drive the Skyhawk a few times. Twice to Ann Arbor, when one of our Fiestas were being fixed up in Siberia. It was so great to have the Ol’ Coot and the Ol’ Boy around to figger out vee-hickle repairs. The Ol’ Boy in particular got energized about fixing vee-hickular problems. He did that stuff for me more than a few times. But that’s a whole ‘nother blahg entry.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
My mom had a blue Plymouth that was shaped like a giant Beetle. I think the car was a later 1940’s car and Gary and I liked to climb up the car and slide down. When we had too many kids to fit in the car, mom and dad sold/gave the car to Aunt Gale in Wisconsin. I got to ride in the car again when I went for a visit when I was in the 4th grade. I also had a 1966 Corvair. It was my first car and I loved it. It always started on cold mornings, drove well in the snow, and it took my best friend Jackie and I to New York for a trip after we got out of High School. I sold it to Gary when I was getting married. Got stuck with Dougs 65 Mustang which was a cool car but it didn’t always start on cold mornings. 1st new car – a 1970 (or maybe 1971) Chrysler Duster. Remember those? Can you believe $2000.00 in late 1970 when we bought it. In 1983 I was the first mom in the St. Hugo’s car pool group to have a conversion van. I could fit 7 kids in seat belts! I was the envy of the parking lot. In about 1 week, another mom had one. Didn’t take long to have a parking lot full of vans. Severalother cars over the years, but those stand out in my memory.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Now Anne about that Ford Pinto wagon. I don’t know if I ever mentioned this or not. You let me borrow it once. Well never mine, no harm no foul, right?
August 18th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
My first two car recollections were Studabakers. The first one was larger (I think arrived from G&G Finlayson)
The second was a Lark.
Then there was the 1962 Chevelle Malibu station wagon
Then the 1970 Ford Fairlane 500 station wagon (Pucci Rustoli – remember that one?)
Then Mom & Dad got the 1976 Plymouth Volare (which allowed me to have the Pucci at school)
Then the series of Accords for Mom & Dad – I don’t know the years.
My cars are easier – after I was told the Pucci was not really mine, and I would have to get my own wheels in CO
1976 Mustang (used) – my first stick shift, only way to learn is to drive it
1980 Honda Civic (little brown car – 280,000 miles in 20 years)
1988 Honda Civid (little blue car – was replaced with the minivan because it had resale value)
1992 used Chrysler Caravan minivan – so Carl could carry his 5 kids
2000 Mazda Protege – that replaced the little brown car (this one was hard)
2004 Toyota Prius – replaced the minivan. The most I had ever paid for a car, about the same as the Caravan & Protege combined.
Oh and a used 1998 Toyota Corolla that is currently residing in Montana.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:19 am
I’ve only owned 2 cars – both Honda Accords. One I bought used from Bubs and Harry (an ’84) and my current 1998. but I clearly remember Jim’s VW bug. light blue.
I also clearly remember driving my (then) new 98 Honda to the cabin and the first day Jim and Jack were under the hood, checking it out. 😉
August 19th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Jane!! Was that the now-famous picture of all the clan butts hanging out of the hood of some vehicle up at the cabin?? I’m *sure* Bananne has the photo somewhere!! 😈
August 20th, 2008 at 7:35 am
It might have been Jane’s, it might have been our Corolla. I had to severly reprove the evil little imp on my shoulder when it suggested that it would be really funny to hit the panic button on the remote entry thingamadoodle with all those heads under the hood.