As the Cash for Clunkers programs comes to a close, one Memorable Moments contributor reflects on some special moments centered around the cars from his past and asks if participants are trading in some memories as well...
"This was the first time the thought of getting $4,500 for no real reason had ever
made me sad. With each rebate claimed, how many memories are traded in?
As the Cash for Clunkers programs rolls to a halt, I can rest easily knowing that no more old friends will disappear, engines turned to useless lumps and bodies crushed. How many Grand Cherokees went away with the memories of first dates and babies brought from hospitals relegated to the depths of the photo albums?
I'm more sensitive to this than most. Maybe I'm an odd duck, somebody who breathes a little too deeply at the Sunoco, but I classify the different stages of my life by what I drove at that time.
I met my wife over a car, you see. It was an eggplant purple 1974 Porsche 914. In the late 1990s, I moved into a new apartment and promptly began working on this car in the parking lot. It rarely ran, and when it did, it rarely ran well. I spent one spring morning attempting to adjust the valves, creating much ruckus in the process. After several hours of this aural abuse, the cute blonde from across the street came over to ask what, exactly, was I doing? I had no great answer, but she kept talking to me anyway.
Long story short, the car became a large part of our emerging friendship and, quickly enough, courtship. I stored that 914 whevever I could beg or borrow space that year, so we spent much of the following summer and fall driving from Baltimore to the D.C. suburbs and back while I had it tucked away at a garage off Georgia Avenue.
Ultimately, I sold the Porsche to fund an engagement ring. My bride-to-be cried when the car was loaded on a trailer, bound for its new home in New Jersey. Good to his word, however, the new owner brought the 914 back from our nuptials and had it on display outside the chapel as my fiancé arrived. The little purple roadster figures heavily in our wedding album.
And that's just one car. There's the old BMW I drove as a newlywed, the Volkswagen Golf that helped us move to our first house, and the MINI Cooper that carried our newborn son, to name just a few.
For me, there's so much tied up with each vehicle that I have a hard time imagining the collective loss our nation has suffered with all the sedans and SUVs that have been left behind, "C4C" chalked on the windshields, watching quietly as their owners roll off the lot in something new.
Like I said, maybe I'm odd with my linkage between cars and people and events. I suspect, though, that each of us ties those memories to something. Maybe it's a certain restaurant or a hoel that triggers that recolleciton; perhaps for some
there's a particular section of the ocean boardwalk that brings it all back.
Whatever it is for you, I hope you hold on to it, no matter how tempting that bonus cash may be. "
About the Author of this Post:
Tim Lavery is a strategic communications consultant and self-taught
shade-tree mechanic. He lives in Bel Air, Maryland with his wife and son, two
cats and a constantly changing fleet of vehicles that puzzles the
neighbors.
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