This may seem like an odd blog entry, but secretly I’m a car guy. Okay, maybe not that secretly, but the car I am thinking of plays an important role in my life.
In the summer of 1986, my mother bought her first car. This was the car that transported my sister and I back and forth to school for several years, that took us, as a family, to get groceries on weekends. It took us on summer camping trips, and it was an extra in The Santa Clause.
I remember going to Don Little Ford during that summer and mum picking out her two-tone blue Ford Escort L. I wanted her to go to the Volkswagen dealership next door, but alas she didn’t. My grandmother had a Mercury Capri that she was willing to trade in, or maybe they took my grandfather’s AMC Pacer, I can’t remember.
My mum put seat covers on, awful and ugly almost faux sheepskin covers, wanting to make sure the car retained the maximum value should she ever wish to trade it in. Sadly, she never did trade it in, and the car lasted until about 2000 when they decided to park it in the garage of my grandmother’s old house.
There’s a story that I only recently told my family about, and it involves that car.
I wasn’t allowed to drive Mum’s car. Honestly, I should have been as soon as i got my license rather than my grandmother given how bad of a driver she became in her older age. I can be a nervous passenger as a result, but I’ve learned to work on that.
When I was allowed, it was when I was in grade 11 or 12 doing a co-op (1991 or 1992). I was taking my friend Chris home, following our friend Matt. We were racing each other, doing 80 kph down Thompson Rd in Milton. I chose to turn the corner at that speed and nearly slid into someone’s front lawn. Thank goodness no one was waiting to turn at that corner and I didn’t hit anyone.
I was crapping myself when we got the car to Chris’s place. When we looked at the back tires, they were bald. I thought I had done that! So we literally went to a store and I bought two new tires with money I had earned working. My mother and grandmother didn’t notice.
Ultimately, my mother hadn’t replaced tires on the car at all for, at that point, the 5 or 6 years she had the car. Yes, I was stupid for driving as I was, but my mum’s lack of knowledge on maintaining a car and probably not listening to the folks at the garage created a bit of a death trap.
Still, I know this was an incredibly important purchase for my mum. She saved her money for it, being a single Mum, it created a bit of freedom and independence. It was her car, and she was building equity.
I can understand why it was put into the garage, but honestly, it’s rusted, it hasn’t had any maintenance on it. A shadow of it’s former past.
Looking at it, I still like the angles it has, I love those halogen headlights and the taillights. The liftgate, as I remember, was spacious. For a compact car you could fit a lot on it, and I recall fitting well in the back seat.
The colours of blue on the car, I liked it with the pinstripe. It’s probably why I like blue cars – having had four of them to date – A Toyota Echo, Toyota Prius, Mini Cooper and the present BMW X3.
Still, I am thankful for the workhorse it was, the joy it brought my mother and having a ride out of Campbellville. 32 years later, it’s time for this car to move on to it’s next life.