Kate's Cars: A Retrospective

It's a big day today. We're getting a new (to us) car. But it's a car manufactured within the last 5 years which is quite a jump for us. We've been an old (read: junk) car driving family since we became a family so finding ourselves driving a car that was made in a year starting with a 2 is a big deal. We've said a fond farewell to Cale's '92 Corolla. She served us well- 188,000 miles strong- but the time has come to retire her. My '94 Jeep is still rolling along, but it's about to become the "other" car. Technically Cale and I are going to share the new car, but really, we both know it's mine!

Thinking about cars today has caused me to reflect on the myriad of cars that I have called mine since I started driving 13 years ago. (Wow- that sentence makes me feel really old!) When I first got my license I shared a '87 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra with my brother. We had only had it a few months when my brother wrecked it about 100 yards from our house. (This was like the third car he had totalled. Why did my dad keep letting him drive??!!!) The Olds was replaced with a car I loved- an '87 Dodge Lancer. It was a little burgundy car that reminds me of summer, the Linesville boys and road trips (to see the previously mentioned boys). Unfortunately, my other brother wrecked that one about a year after I got it. I was not happy. (And as an aside- how did I turn out to be such a good driver when obviously my brothers stunk!) Enter the worst car ever: an '87 VW Jetta. That car was seriously made of tin foil and would have surely crumpled into oblivion if I had ever been hit. I was not sad to see it go! I traded it in right before I went to college when I bought my first car, an '89 Mazda 626. I loved that car and have so many fond memories that again involve road trips, too many stories of being stranded somewhere, and the road between Houghton, New York and Cleveland, Ohio. It served me well and I kept it until after we were married. At that point the power steering and A/C were gone and it was on its last legs.

My Mazda 626 was replaced with an '89 Oldsmobile 98 that was given to us. A big old boat of a car, but she did pretty well up until the time we went to Namibia. We gave it to my brother to use while we were gone and about a month after we left he was driving on the highway and a wheel flew off. Thankfully no one was injured, but needless to say, the car was done. So we came home from Namibia to our trusty Corolla and had to do some car shopping. That is when we purchased the Jeep that has served us very well over the last three and a half years.

And now here we are...on the verge of a new era in our family! A family with a nice car. Is it necessary? Do we need a nice car? Certainly not, but we sure are thankful for the way God has provided and worked it out so we could get this car. We are off to the bank to get some cash money to make it ours!

ps- Our new car is a Mazda 6 Sport Wagon. Yes, we are the proud owners of a station wagon, but this is not your mama's woodchuck from the days of old! (And my mama drove one of those for many years!)

pps- Why do I refer to cars as she? Is that weird or what? I think that is Cale rubbing off on me!

ppps-Happy 200th post to me!