3.18.2008

Day 3

First, a little background. When I was in seventh grade, the earth moved and the heavens opened and my dad decided that my mom needed a car of her very own. And, because he is magnanimous at heart, daddy spared no expense and got mom the best car he could imagine. Because he loved her and only wanted to give her the best. Well, at least the best that $4700 could buy.

In 1980, the "best" was apparently a royal blue Toyota corolla. It had manual everything-- windows, seats, locks, even the transmission. It also had blue vinyl seats, a defroster that took five minutes longer than our drive to school to actually begin defrosting, and a radio--no cassette player, just a radio. Oh, and just two doors. Evidently, two additional doors were a luxury we couldn't afford. (It looked almost exactly like the one in the picture minus the racing extras, naturally.)


The car quickly became part of the Lenhart household. It was dubbed "the little car" because we Lenharts are creative that way, and because we loved it like we loved one another, we fought over it. The worst days were when "the big car" (a finely tuned Pontiac Bonneville station wagon) was at Johnny's (the local mechanic) and daddy had to drive us to school before he went to work. You see, my dad is almost 6 feet, 6 inches tall. Now consider that the entire Corolla was not even 8 feet long, and you can see our dilemma.

Daddy drove from the back seat. Yes, he technically sat in the driver's seat but that driver's seat itself was in the back seat. And, yes, there were four of us kids, which meant some poor soul had to sit "behind" (under) daddy while he drove. Oh how we argued to sit anywhere BUT behind my dad while he drove. To this day, I'm not sure what was worse--actually sitting behind (under) daddy or the mortal embarrassment that one had to endure when trying to extricate one's self from that seat in front of everyone in the school parking lot.

Fast forward to today. This morning because of how our schedules worked, we all rode to school/work together. As we tooled down I-70 in our roomy Toyota Sienna mini van, I had to chuckle. Today, as we drove, Jeff was listening to his iPod, Sydney was listening to her iPod, Brooke was on my laptop, finding some part in a movie that she needed for a class, and the built-in video player rattled ever so slightly in the car ceiling. All was not lost though---Payton was reading happily, and Sawyer was working intently on his NCAA bracket to submit in the contest at school.

It's kinda sad. My kids won't be able to laugh with each other about how they argued over sitting behind (under) dad in the car. (Although, trust me, they do argue about who will sit where.) Nor will they realize that they WILL survive the near-death experience of having to get out of such a fine piece of machinery in the school parking lot. Those are character-building experiences that my children will miss. My how times have changed. (I wonder if anyone is selling a 1980 Corolla on ebay?)

7 comments:

Kathi Roach said...

Jen, I can totally relate to your car story. When I was in Kindergarten my Dad bought my Mom a 2 door blue Dodge Duster. It only had an AM radio and did not have A/C....after all that would be a luxury item. When I turned 16 and got my driver's license, guess which car I got to drive? That's right the very same Dodge Duster! My parents kept it all those years!
Needless to say it was a complete piece of junk by the time I got it, but I didn't care, it was a car. Brian drove a Pinto for his first car! Now, our Kaitlin is 14 and is already telling us she'd like to drive Brian's BMW when she gets her license. HA! We'll see about that one.

I'm adding your link to my blog. Good luck with the 100 days!

C.C. said...

Couldn't find you a 1980 Corolla, but here's a 1993 one for only $1000 - http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Corolla-GAS-MISER-93-COROLLA-4DR-1-8-LTR-4CYL-AUTO-RUNS-GOOD-MAKE-OFFER_W0QQitemZ120232494992QQihZ002QQcategoryZ6445QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
LOL!

Maggie said...

We rarely had a car. We walked or rode the bus. I do remember one time we had a car for a little while that was kinda like a flintstone and had holes in the floor. Not good :)

Laurel said...

I'm reading! And loved this post by the way. Ah, the good ol' days. Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day. It's fun to get to know new people. Especially people who can write!

Michelle with a K said...

Oh my goodness, thanks for sharing the great story!

Yes, those are character building experiences. You got me thinking back to the days when I used to do somersaults in the back of my parents' turquoise Pontiac GTO. See, there was NO BACKSEAT...my dad took it out to be repaired or something, and it was gone for like 6 months. I was so disappointed when the thing was reinstalled, because I could no longer do flips in the car as we cruised down the freeway.

Ahh the good old days...no seatbelts...no carseats...HEY! NO SEATS PERIOD!

Thanks again for the giggles :-)

Anonymous said...

A couple clarifications: the radio was AM only. I don't remember arguing about who sat behind Dad, as I recall it was always me.

Kari said...

ok, so I too have a similar story. haha. although, my Dad decided to buy a 'smaller' car. We had a pontiac horizon. good times, good times. there were 5 of us and we had to decide who might be killed in case of an accident..haha..KIDDING!! but seriously, that was before the seatbelt law came into effect. MY little brother always got stuck sitting in the middle where there was no seatbelt and my sisters and i all shared a seatbelt with the other sister. totally safe i am sure!! wink wink! ahhhhh...the good ol' days!