Greetings from the Land of the Sun…
I’m guessing that when the holiday weekend was on its way, many people planned some light (or maybe not so light) entertainment. Friends over… cook-out in the back yard… or maybe you took a trip out of town. Hubby and I bought a car.
This is his car. I have mine. In fact, I SO have mine that the license plate on the front of the vehicle reads “HERS.” Why would I do that you might wonder.. or maybe you just think it’s dumb. Who really knows… after living all those years with hubby and four sons (the shortest being 6 feet 2 1/2 inches) it isn’t dumb to me.
Men do love their cars. When we met, my hubby-to-be had a GTO. I was not a car person, so what did this mean to me? Not much. But he was very impressed by this car. After we became engaged and I moved to Ohio to meet his family, he bought a brand new Porsche. Again, I wasn’t impressed. All I knew is that the color reminded me of an orange gone bad and it was constantly in the shop.
All this time, I had a little used light green VW bug. He thought it was nothing special… until after we were married, when we took a trip to Colorado. Both those cars sat in the cold Ohio freeze for ten days. Upon returning from the air port, hubby went straight away to his car to start it up and let it run for a while. He told me that the cars, having sat there in the cold not being driven, was not a good thing. He had been taught that running the engine for while would help a car start better in the morning… When we both would have to go to work early. He must have tried to turn that engine of his over for 5 maybe 10 minutes. It never did start. I’m thinking, “Wow, if his brand new really expensive Porsche won’t start, I better get in and run the engine on my little VW bug. He laughed at me for even trying.
I get into my little car… Hubby is still sitting in that Porsche… and, I put the key in the ignition of the little bug, turn the key and Vrrrrooooom! It started right up! He looked over at me… I’m smiling… he was not. He got out of his very expensive car, went into our apartment and left me out there in my car.
Now don’t feel sorry for me being left there because I deserved it… I laughed! A LOT. Never NEVER laugh at a man’s pain. (Where was I when that lesson was being passed around?) My men go into a cave and stay there for sometimes hours, days even. They leave me out in the cold where I am to be punished for … say, laughing at the fact that the new Porsche can’t start while the VW bug (not new) ran like a champ. And when Hubby came out of his cave that day, we started a long series of one new car after another!
He had many other cars… a Jeep Wagoneer, a BMW, two Citrons, Mazda, Thunderbird, Mustang, Lexis, Infiniti, Ford Aerostar, Oldsmobile station wagon, Datsun pick-up, Mercury Sable, another VW bug (that was a test I think… would it run like the first one did… And it didn’t.). I’m sure I left a few out, but you can see there have been many cars in his life. Tonight we added to that list a new Ford Fusion.
I have had on the other hand, only the VW bug, and a Ford Explorer which I paid for with my own little earnings. I did not pick these cars. The men in my life picked them for me. I have driven those vehicles until their lives ended. And then last year, I bought all by myself my first brand new car. A Lincoln MKX… When I drove it home from Colorado, the tongues of my male relatives hung from their mouths. Salivation occurred whenever a door shut tight or the new leather smell wafted from the inside of the vehicle. And the technology in that car! (Men do swoon… that proved it!) I knew it would only be a matter of time before, like dogs marking territory, I would lose control of my car. So… I bought a little reminder… ergo the license plate. And, I’m happy to say that everyone is deeply respectful. Especially since my granddaughter cannot understand why her granddad is allowed to drive a car that says “Hers” on the front of it. ( She is very vocal! I love that about her!) This said, I get a lot of comments on my license plate. I don’t care. In the words of Daffy Duck, “Mine, mine, mine! All mine!”
Tomorrow we pick up the new car after church. We will drive home with the new smell filling the air. He will be a happy man… like a hunter that just bagged a deer. I will be happy too. He won’t be driving “HERS.”
Have a beautiful Sunday. May God deeply blessed you and fill your lives with joy!
Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple