Cars part 2

My Love/Hate Relationship with Cars

Part 2

Living in the suburbs made a car necessary, but we still looked for a prestigious looking automobile. We bought a 1959 Dodge with space age fins jutting from the rear fenders. Long, sleek and black, we nicknamed it the “Mafia-mobile” or sometimes called it “The Black Mariah”. It had push button transmission on the dash...very innovative. I haven’t seen push buttons in a car before or since.  

In order for me to have the car during the day while my husband went to work, I had to get up early, get my two pre-school children up and dressed so we could take daddy to the train station at 7 AM for his commute to Manhattan. We reversed the process at 7 PM to pick him up.

One winter day, a storm started early in the morning and by late afternoon, the roads remained slippery with packed snow. The train station stood at the top of a hill and as I tried to climb the hill, about half way up, the wheels spun around and I couldn’t make it the rest of the way. So I backed the car down to the flat road, revved the engine and started up again, and again got stuck half way. Backing down a second time, with visibility very poor, I landed in a snow drift. The car would no longer go forward nor backward, just kept spinning its wheels. I got the kids out of the back seat.

“C’mon kids, we have to walk the rest of the way.” A Good Samaritan in a VW beetle came along and offered a ride. I gratefully accepted. We picked up my husband and the VW owner drove us all back to our car.  With me behind the wheel, the two men tried to get us moving. They rocked it back and forth as I accelerated. No Luck. After many tries, they gave up, and our Good Samaritan drove us home.

The following day, with shovels to dig the car out of the snow bank and rubber mats to shove under the tires for traction, my husband called a neighbor to help him. They drove to the spot where we left the car but it had disappeared. They figured correctly that the police towed it. As my husband paid the fine and tow charge at the police station, the cop said “Wait till you see your car.”

I wonder what he means by that? Richard thought until he went to the impound lot and saw for himself. On the previous night, I had opened the front windows to better hear his instruction trying to get the car moving and forgot to close them. It had snowed all night and covered the entire front seat, dash and floor. My husband had to use the shovel to dig out the interior before he could drive it home.

...to be continued