My first car was a 1979 Honda Accord (hatchback). It was a stick shift that had a forgiving clutch in it. I could shift fast and on the fly without much precision and I could get away with it. After I good rain I knew how to hit a curve just right, shift the gears and slam the accellerator and I could fishtail all over the place. My mom would have died. Now I know why the raised the driving age here in Mississippi. Not many 15 year old guys need to be driving like that!

It was a decent car, but one that never commanded many looks. Or at least not the good kinds. It had a loud stereo, but it was ALL treble. And don’t slam the door too hard or you’ll have to lean over and put the speaker back in the door. I used to daydream at the Crutchfield catalog thinking I wanted to put some bazookas in there to give that baby some BASS!
But my senior year in high school, mid November, I was pleasently surprised to get a new car. Or at least new to me. It was a 1988 Honda Accord. Gold. Nine years newer than my old (old old) car. It seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. And I lived lots of life behind the wheel of that car. Been lots of places. But as the years have moved on, so have it’s better days. And sadly, I’m giving her up. There’s a family down in Waveland that lost most of everything to Katrina. And The Wife and I decided to let Goldie take a trip down to the coast and belong to someone new. To be honest, Goldie was starting to get run down. No muffler, no AC or heater. Really hard to steer and some brakes issues (YES, we got those fixed before giving donating it). But after some power-steering juice, she’s almost back to her old self. And I’m going to miss her purrr coming out of her muffler-less back end.

But last night I tried to think of a few things that I first expereienced w/ Goldie:

  • My first cd player
  • My summers away working at CLS and Ozark.
  • My first listen to the Crash cd of Dave Matthews.
  • My first date with The Wife
  • I think we had our first kiss sitting on the trunk of the car (or was that her car?)
  • A car my mom was finally confident in my driving out of town.
  • We experienced Notheast, Southern Miss, and Miss State together.
  • And The Wife and I left the wedding reception in Goldie.
  • More tickets than I want to admit.
  • Late night pranks in college.
  • I could go on and on…

So as I say goodbye to Goldie, know that she was a good car. She’s older than most of the kids in my youth group now….but she’s still got HEART!