There is a tradition here in the Village, and that is...no matter what Pat purchases, one of the Neons, or now the Teenas, would get first dibs on it. We know if "the Manager" purchased it, he had spent a year thinkin' about it and researchin it and makin' sure it was safe. He always bought big cars too, cars built for haulin the hood to dinner, or the beach, or just about anywhere we wanted to go. Bein' from Chicago, you also knew he was gonna have something that would plow through the snow or at least a set of snow tires he would dutifully put on in September and keep on though March (now he tells me he just took them off the other day...but that's another story) . The long and short of it was, his philosophy was that somebody had to have a car big enough to carry us all if need be. I have a picture of nine of us scrunched in tighter than sardines in the back of La's Subaru, headed to Pawley's Island for dinner, Not pretty let me tell you...but it was more about bein together than bein' comfortable...and in that case "safe".
But I digress...thing is, The "Friendly Villager" passed from Mr. Pat to me and now nearly 200,000 miles later she has gone to be
" rein-car- nated." Safety first...I couldn't let her back on the road. She clicked, and thumped and had stopped lockin' her doors on one side. She didn't like to hold a charge and would even yell at me when I turned on her radio. Like all women, she ran hot after a certain age and just couldn't get cool. Time and again I put out to have her cooling system updated..until finally, it just went.
Her last few years were spent hangin' out in front of the house, acting like a true guardian. Puttin' up a good front sayin' stuff like, "Yeah, they're home...inside...don't even think about goin' near that house..I'm a car and if I'm here, they're here so back off"! That's my girl! She was my "Alpha Car" and I'm so grateful for her miles of laughter, her safe trips to Chili-Beach, Chicago, New York, Florida, the Easter Shore and Buckin' ham to name only a few.
She has hauled Neons, Teena's, Mullets, Grey Hounds and Grandmothers. She took Myra and Claude and Momma to the hospital in a very "laid-back and out" position. We would take her middle seat out, throw pillows on the floor and groove on the way to some ball game or bowling birthday. She was a trooper..with many names.
The Manager, liked to to name his cars...like I said, he was both detail oriented and at the same time "poetic". Loving all things French, he searched for something that would identify this Friendly Villager and represent her purpose...and so he came up with the touching....translation for
ten friends...
Dix Amis
Ummmm...need I say more. What man...in his right mind would have a license plate that reads like somethin' that ain't hittin'? Unfortunately, I was the one who had to break that one to him. Seven shades of red he turned and he was no more good...as I like to say. I don't know what he replaced it with...probably just numbers, but that plate was gone in no time. I felt bad about that...but somebody had to tell him.
Once she was passed to me, I didn't keep her as clean as the Manager, but I did look after her and she got a new plate...
One Crow
She was good...acceptin' her new role as a work horse and with a shiny new trailer hitch on the back she carried lumber and sheet rock, sofa's and beds, lawn tractors and kayaks. She still toted Teena's and once raced the Bee to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, on the way home the tunnel police pulled me to the side and suggested I "slow down and have a safe trip home". I promised to do so....How far is heaven?
She was spunky to the end...she was red! She went "as the crow flies" here and there and returned home hot and hummin!
Thank you dear one, well done...until we meet again.
