I LOVE TO DRIVE . . .
From the first time I sat behind the wheel I was hooked. It seemed like a miracle - like flying!
Mother taught me on our Model T Ford when I was 12.
I drove smack into a tree that first time, and have experienced a few collisions since then . . . but oh the fun, OH THE RUSH!
When I was a teenager our family car was a 1948 Dodge.
I drove it ridiculously - pumping the accelerator in time to the beat of forbidden popular music - with piles of friends jouncing along for the ride!
My boyfriend John gave me this '31 Chrysler for my 21st birthday. It was the very first car of my own. Stick shift with a black knob on the top - windsheild that rolled up and open.
It got stolen, alas. The RCMP found it up in the Yukon!
I bought my pearl grey 1952 Chevy Coupe for $50 and drove it 1000 miles over the Canadian Rockies from Regina, Saskatchewan to Seattle for my junior year in college.
In 1961 my friend Sharon and I spent four months doing our Grand European Tour on $5.00 a Day - in a new Gulf Blue VW bug - 'lodging' in camp grounds and youth hostels.
I sent this dear car back to Seattle from Frankfort on a frieghter.
In Chicago I drove an official State of Illinois car to visit universities as a State Career Consultant.
On a dare - I also drove a motorcycle (briefly) in Illinois - with its basket full of career brochures - hoping to make the college kids look twice as I sped by - leaning into the wind :)
In Washington, D.C. during the 70's I adored my fabulous 1967 Mustang - gold body, black top, black leather seats. great sound! It could do zero to sixty in less than a minute! I was 35 years old. Bought and restored my first house in D.C. - a tiny 1749 cottage on Capitol Hill.
In the 1980's teaching at UCLA I zipped around town in my white Toyota Celica . . . well, I drove sedately on the small streets, but that car could move.
Later, in LA - I liked my jaunty little Honda Civic. Alas it got stolen, with my favorite camera and lovely down sleeping bag from Switzerland in it :(
And then I bought a lovely old luxury Nissan Maxima wagon - spacious, comfy, rode like you're on a cloud . . . roomy and cushy. Perfect for lazy weekend get-aways.
But finally I found my zippy and classy 1998 Audi A4 with its 11 Bose speakers and its purring and powerful V-6 engine. It holds everything - all the art supplies for workshops, canes and walkers, cat litter, friends. And best of all, it still speeds me graciously over the mountains with elegance and ease . . . I sing all the way.
WHAT A RIDE!
