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I
was 23 when I purchased my first new car, a four-door,
icy-blue, Pontiac Sunbird with fabric-lined bucket seats, and
an AM/FM stereo cassette player. Sweating profusely while negotiating
the price, I panicked even more when presented the final paperwork.
My signature not only indicated that I would own a brand new
vehicle, (after 24 or so car payments) it reaffirmed my toddling
steps into adulthood - First Real Job, First Steady Boyfriend
(o.k., second), and now, First New Car.
Many
years later, vehicle #7 is a sturdy Honda SUV in which I take
my two sons back and forth to school each day, chauffeuring
their friends and them as needed for field trips, play dates
and sports practices. My 11-year-old often brings new CDs for
me to sample, introducing me to groups like Flashlight Brown
and Bowling for Soup, bands I certainly wouldn't otherwise hear.
We maturely discuss tunes for a minute or so and then the two
boys naturally revert to hyperbolic tales of playground valor.
Many an argument ensues when one of us is tired and grumpy or
just because it's Monday, or Tuesday, or time for a piano lesson.
My
weekly passengers almost inevitably include muddy-footed kids
with sticky fingerprints, leaking lunch boxes, flimsy party
favor goodie bags that somehow just HAVE to get opened in the
car despite mom's protesting, wet beach towels, stinky sneakers
and socks as well as cookie crumbs that I can't seem to avoid
especially when rushing to the dentist after school and the
kids are starved.
I
also confess to some illegal stowaways.
Cockroach
clubs gather nightly in my driveway, gleefully rubbing their
greedy little antennae together, plotting future assaults. To
my knowledge, there's only been one successful cockroach breaking
and entering. He was stiff-legged when I found him on the floor
of the back seat, but, judging by the McDonalds' French Fry
nearby, he died a sated little bugger, err bug.
My
car has seen the occasional annoying mosquitoes and flies, a
silky spider web or two and a swarming bee that obviously mistook
the steering wheel for a honey comb. Another intruder was a
baby frog which we thankfully spotted while loading up the car
in the morning and not in the middle of a drive down the road.
Most
of all there are toys.
(CONTINUE...)
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