Should You Lock a Duck-Taped 20 Year Old Car?

The car stories I’ve been writing have been super fun to write while tearing them out of the recesses of my brain. I’m also blessed with being an A-B driver. You may know the type, they don’t care what set of wheels they are driving, they just hope and pray they can get from Point A to Point B safely. My dad must have broke me and my sisters in early with that scenario of driving jalopies, and I kind of still dig it today. Bucking the trend of driving something brand spanking new and shiny (good luck buying something new today though) brings me joy. Oh yes, my non-mechanical husband can’t do any maintenance, so every decade or so we spring for a bright and shiny new vehicle. Let me add that what he cannot do in car maintenance, he can instead do a spread sheet on something financial or car maintenance that can rock your world!

It’s amazing that the jalopies we drive can be parked anywhere-especially the small ones! And, is it an oxymoron to lock the doors of a 20 year old duck-taped car that many people have told us they wouldn’t be caught dead in it? I don’t know the answer to that one, but out of habit, and a hat tip to the newer ones we’ve got, I locked those beat up doors anyway.

One of the benefits of living in the Mid-Atlantic area is that our cars don’t turn into rust-buckets like they did living in Ohio near Lake Erie. We do not need to replace them as often. Maybe that’s a double-edged sword. Perhaps folks get tired of them before there is something wrong with them. We never tire of them until they’ve driven their last mile and cannot go another inch.

Despite all the funnies I’m making about our cars, they are well-maintained by our mechanic, Joe, that I aptly named: “Joe the Mechanic.” He keeps them humming along and purring like a basket of kittens. He gives every car he touches TLC, even old beat up things like ours.

BSoleille!

Terri

2001 Toyota Corolla (looks great from a distance!)