If this defines me, I’m in trouble

Or so I thought.

Today’s post is about cars.

HEY!!! DON’T GO AWAY JUST YET! I get it: I am NOT. AT. ALL. a car person either.

I’m a “drive it to the store and see if I can cram four ten-foot boards in it” kind of person.

Beyond that, I don’t care; as long as it gets me to where I’m going. So if a car is a reflection of the person, this is what I thought we’d be looking at:

via dictionary.com

Fortunately, it turns out that’s not me at all, according to this quiz: What Your Car Says About You . (If you take the quiz, you’re invited to share your results below.)

As it happens, I can officially lay claim to being “safe and practical.”

Wow. How alluring.

I guess my automotive pedigree is very well established.

As a kid, I felt like we were rich when my parents acquired a second car: a very used Ford Falcon, I used to think it was a Ford “Bessie,” because every time my mom would put the key in the igntion, she would implore, “Come on, Bessie.” Bessie didn’t always respond to sweet talk, but I still appreciated her unique features. As the youngest of three, I sat behind my mom in the back seat and thought it was cool to lift the piece of wood on the floor that separated my feet from the whoosh of moving pavement below. Yikes.

My first car was VERY safe and practical. After hearing that I had to take two busses to my college classes, my uncle gave me his Plymouth Fury Gran Coupe as a starter car.

That sounds like a hot number, doesn’t it?

The Fury was a block long. had flip up headlights

via eBay.com

and a paisley vinyl roof.

also via eBay.com

However, like my unicycle, it was not a popularity magnet for me. I mean, I guess it COULD have been:

But I wanted to write for a living instead.

It wasn’t the easiest car to parallel park, let me tell you. But It got me through four years of college commuting, and–as it aged–I relished being that girl who knew how to start her car with a butterknife. Even back then, I had the skills that thrill.

Eventually, when starting my car with a butterknife lost it’s cool (like, almost daily in the parking lot of my first real job as a technical writer), I took the four-year payment plunge into a dark red 1984 Buick Skyhawk.

via Momentcar.com

A few years after that came a wedding, some kiddos, mini-vans and eventually SUVs..

We drive our cars until their last mile, and with the current supply-chain issues, are making do with what we have until we can choose what we want. (Not that there’s a huge amount of choices. Is it me, or does every car look the same?) Currently, I am driving my late MIL’s 2004 Honda Accord.

Driving the vintage Honda has been a little reminiscent of the Fury days, since I have to carry (and frequently use) essential equipment like a jump starter pack and a tire inflator. Every day is a surprise with the MILmobile.

Let’s just say the butterknife was a lot more fun and–for now–I don’t offer to drive any friends I’d like to keep.

SPEAKING OF friends… this post is part of the “Where Bloggers Live” series (which, in December, I rudely ducked out of at the last minute due to technical incompetence…sorry). But my steady Eddie friends are waiting to share their auto adventures with you, so please visit:

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Em at Dust and Doghair
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After 
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style

Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Over the next few months, a group of six bloggers will be sharing their workspaces, their homes, towns and more!

Make sure you visit everyone to see where the magic happens!

6 comments

  1. Flip up lights!! I remember those!! Love the paisley top. And I took the quiz and got the same results. High five, sister…we are mothers through and through.

    I had a really cute aqua VW Beetle when I was pregnant with my first daughter. Had to run beside it and get it moving then jump in and pop the clutch. No wonder I didn’t gain much weight with that pregnancy!!

  2. You had me at paisley vinyl roof!!! Oh. My. Word. That is all kinds of fabulous. I cannot begin to imagine how one would start a car with a butter knife. That is a new one to me.

    That Buick is pretty sweet!

  3. Man, cars were LONG back in the day!

    PAISLEY VINYL ROOF! Now THAT is something I’ve never seen! Wow. I think I would like that.

    The Mercury Marquis I inherited when my mother passed away also had those flip-up-and-down headlights. I liked that, too.

    Hmm, the ButterKnife Starter Kit sounds vaguely familiar…I think there I was something I used to do with a hammer or screwdriver to get the first Mustang started. Maybe I had to hit the starter? I’d forgotten about that but…it seems familiar. As does the “starter spray” that My Crappy House mentioned above.

    Yeah, it’s kind of amazing any of us are still alive.

    Glad you could join us this month, Em!

    xoxo Bettye

    I loved the old cars cuz I could look under the hood and actually know what I was looking at, and could, more or less, get it watered and fed and started, even when it was being ornery. Now, fuggedaboutit. It’s like opening up a HUMAN with all those parts and organs and hoses.

  4. I know you said Buick Skyhawk, but I heard it as Buick Skylawk in Mona Lisa Vito’s voice. Your Fury was, indeed, a block long, but I dig the paisley top! My first car was a 1981 Datsun (before it was Nissan) Maxima. It ran on diesel fuel and was only slightly faster than riding my bike. As it was nearing the end of its life, I had to pop the hood, spray ether into the engine, then run around to quickly turn the ignition key, before the ether dissipated, to start it. So, I see your butter knife and raise you a chemical spray start. These spoiled kids today with their brand new beamers, courtesy of mom and dad’s poor judgment, don’t know what they’re missing out on…

    1. Mr had a blue Skylawk. It may or may not have had positraction (bc although cars aren’t my jam, movies are).

      He also shared an orange Datsun with his mom, until a fire truck hit it.

      Yikes. A chemical spray start sounds like a threatening fitness challenge.

      Happy weekend! We made it!

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