READ HIS BLOG FOLKS - Steven has a huge heart!!!
I think most people have fond memories of the first car they owned. Me
not so much. My first car broke my heart, it was a brown Toyota that
on my first night , it stopped working and never ran good again.
The car I fell in love with, and still have heart flutters to this day
while thinking of it was about the third car I owned. My bright shiny
red ford festiva.
I loved this car for so many reasons, first it was the first car I
ever bought on my own. It was red, and I could drive forever on 5
bucks of gas. And last but not least, it was the car my best friend
Betty and I lived in for a summer.
It was the end of the eighties, that strange time right before the
grunge movement took over. I had just traded my flock of seagulls hair
for a chin length bod that was died jet black to match my clothes and
eye liner (yes eyeliner, I looked fabulous) Betty and I had worked for
the past two years, her in a vets office, me cutting hair...we had
saved all our money. Our plan was to hit the road, no real plan just
see where the road took us.
We both gave our notice at work. Packed up what little we took in my
new Festiva and hit the road. We had tickets to a depeche mode concert
in Chicago...
We planned on attending the concert, then just following the road to
wherever. We arrived at the concert...me with the black hair, tight
rocker jeans(black) and my white pirate shirt(yes, like the Seinfeld
"puffy shirt") she , black hair...long black dress, red lips....both
of us sporting our eye liner.....the concert was amazing....I can
still hear the crowd singing in unison "It's your own personal Jesus"
We met this amazing girl, Kate that night. From the minute I met her I
knew I had to know her. Bleached hair, red lips, amazing eyes.....we
talked. She told us how she was headed to Cincinnati for the next DM
concert. Having no real plan, we decided to tag along. So we left Chi
town, the three of us headed to Cincinnati in search of the music.
The road trip was amazing, we laughed, talked...sang. We also found
out that a festiva is just not big enough for three adults. It was
like trying to live in a phone booth....to say crowded would be an
understatement. We arrived at the concert, it was amazing as
well....we lost Kate that night, she hooked up with two guys who had
decided to head out west.
We may have lost our new friend, but we had gained a plan, after the
concert both Betty and I looked at each other and said, lets just
follow around depeche mode for the summer! Without much more thought
than that, we got the concert schedule, jumped in the car and began
our adventure.
It was truly a time like no other. Betty and I had so many adventures
along the way....met so many amazing people, some I am still friends
with to this day. We became true independent thinkers that summer,
realizing that sometimes all you can do is follow your dream....
Things I learned that summer
1. Bucket seats, no matter how far they recline, are not a comfy place to sleep
2. The smell of two adults with no access to showers in a small car
can and will become overwhelming, causing you to pull off the road and
run into a field, just to shower under those giant sprinkler things
farmers use.
3. Farmers do not like it when two stinky strangers are running around
there fields "showering"
4. black hair un washed is not attractive
5. Friends, truly are the family we choose
6. People, strangers on the road can become the best of friends
7. never a good idea to wash your clothes in a gas station bathroom sink
8. said clothes don't dry well, while being worn
9. those same cloths smell like nothing you have ever smelled when
mixed with the smell of the un showered
10. depeche mode followers are the coolest people on the planet
11. a Ford festiva can out run a pack of crazy dogs on a old dirt road
while you are lost
12. I would so relive every moment of that summer if I could
MY friend Betty has passed on since that awesome summer...but her
memory lives on. When ever I hear a depeche mode song, whenever I see
eye liner in a store, whenever I see a old red ford festiva driving
down the road...
It was an amazing summer, a summer of adventure, of love, of true
friendship....self discovery and life lessons that can never be
forgotten....and none of that time could have happened if it had not
been for my first motor love....the wonderful, red, magic ride...my
festiva.
11 comments:
What a wonderful story. I'm sure Betty would be very happy to know that her memory lives with you.
She's your own personal Jesus. (See what I did there??)
Thanks for sharing your story with us :)
Oh wow! That sounds like quite the summer! What an incredible memory.
What a fun summer!
My very first car was a piece of crap Chevy Citation. There was more rust than paint. My parents bought it for me. It's sooooooooo not what I would have ever picked out for myself! First of all because it was really ugly and secondly because it spent more time at the shop getting fixed than it did in my driveway, practically!
That was an interesting and fun summer. You should really turn this story into a book. Love, love, love the part where you're showering in the farmers' fields. Thanks for sharing!
That book would be awesome to read...and Steven would be the best writer for it!
What great memories. Oh, the wonderful summers of our youth. I miss Depeche Mode. I was so young and full of angst!
For the record, my first car was a VW Jetta. I loved it, I thought I was so cool in it!
Lots of yummy love,
Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner
www.mawhats4dinner.com
That is the cutest red car I have never seen!!
What an amazing story that most of us only wished we had to tell. AWESOME!
I agree. I smell a book in there.
My first car was a plaid Maverick, but despite it's interesting paint job, it doesn't sound nearly as cool as that Festiva. What a fantastic summer!
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