My Relationship with Cars

I've never had much feeling one way or the other about automobiles except that I want them to start when I get in them and I'll get to wherever I need to go.

When I was a kid growing up we always had a Chevrolet--I remember a Chevy coupe, then a larger Chevy sedan, but my dad during those years was definitely a Chevy man.

Then I got married. Our first car was some old clunker that died while we were on our way from Norfolk VA to Cambridge MD. No one in hubby's family was willing to come and get us, so we rode a bus. Someone stole the car and all hubby's tools. (Because of the fact no one would help us, hubby helps anyone who gets stuck anywhere, whether we know them or not.)

One of hubby's favorites was an old Cadillac. Along with our four month old daughter, we drove it from Maryland to California. It broke down two or three times along the way and when we finally rolled in to L.A. and my parents home, the car died--literally. All four tires went flat and there was a big crack in the block. Hubby and my dad put another engine in the Caddy and it made several more trips across the U.S.--but not with me or the kids in it--just hubby driving to wherever he was stationed.

Not sure when it happened, but hubby began a life long love affair with Fords. In the beginning they were second-hand station wagons that he always had to work on.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 kids, I got an MG--an old one with the steering wheel on the right hand side. Oh, how I loved that car. Driving with the top down I could forget I had a houseful of kids--except when I had them crammed in with me. Remember, there were no seat belts back in that time.

Finally, I totally outgrew that darling car, or I should say the family outgrew it, and we sold it. The replacement was a VW bus. All the kids fit in it just fine along with half the neighborhood kids. Still no seat belts. We even drove that bus on a cross country camping trip pulling a little trailer filled with our camping gear. The big draw back to that VW was half the time it wouldn't start which meant all passengers had to get out and push. It didn't take much of a push, and I could pop the clutch and it would start. Great fun the night I took my lady friends, all dressed up in evening gowns to some sophisticated function and every time we stopped, they had to get out and push.

From there we moved up to a Ford truck and camper. That was a much better solution for all our camping trips. Since that time we've had Ford vans, Ford station wagons, Ford sedans, and a Ford Windstar and now I'm driving a Ford Edge--and hubby an old Ford truck with dual wheels, something he's always wanted.

I'm glad I have the Ford Edge because it doesn't look like all the rest of the cars. Nowadays, except for VW bugs and PT cruisers, almost all the cars look alike. When I had the Windstar everyone seemed to have one the same color as mine--I tried to get into more cars that didn't belong to me.

I love the Edge, not too many people in our area have one, and it helps that I have a big magnetic sign on the back that has my website in big letters.

But really, it doesn't matter, all I've ever wanted was a car that started when I got in it and took me where I wanted to go.

Marilyn Meredith