It was September 1999, and I was just starting my senior year of high school when I bought my first car. I purchased Little Red with 70,000 miles on it for $5,900.
For the last 14 years this car has been a major part of my life: high school, youth dances, 4 years of college, young single adult dances, driving to Disneyland (and all over Southern California for that matter), and dating Nathan (we even drove Little Red the night we got engaged).
Nathan and I drove Little Red from California to Iowa when we moved, and I drove the civic to and from work in California and in Iowa probably a thousand times. The civic got driven all over the Iowa City area, and even made several other trips to St. Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Des Moines (multiple times), Dyersville, and Nauvoo (multiple times).
It was on a tow dolly during our move to Pennsylvania, so that doesn't technically count, but we drove it many places here in Pennsylvania such as Brookville, Huntingdon, Altoona, Phillpsburg (all of which were multiple times), and all over the State College area.
Well, on Sunday May 5th Little Red took its last drive. Nathan had to drive it to Brookville (about 1.5 hours away) to a church meeting. It brought him home, but the next morning when Nathan tried to take it to work the civic would not start (it was not the battery seeing that we just replaced it a few months ago. Not to mention the lights would turn on and off).
On Tuesday we had it towed to a local auto shop where we learned it needed LOADS of repair work done (clutch problems, brakes, tires, rotary replacements, a cylinder in the engine shot, etc). Not shocking news for a 19 year old car with 196,852 miles on it.
After some discussion and prayer, we decided not to fix Little Red, so we sold it to the mechanic for $200. It was a bitter/sweet experience. After all, this car represented 14 years of my life. So now we are officially a one car family.
Farewell Little Red. You will be greatly missed -- especially by me.
6 comments:
awe, i liked that little car.
Sad day. :(
Eric S. said:
"We've been in your position before, sad day."
Emily P. said:
"Did you save the 3 hubcaps?"
Dad said:
"Cool story and lots of memories!!!"
Wow! That car lasted longer than any pet we've ever owned! Even our last cat, who, I'm certain, stayed alive purely out of spite :)
Janna said:
"What a great tribute to Little Red! I can't believe how this lasted you 14 years!! We had some great memories in that car ... all the *NSYNC and Britney Spears songs that were played on the way to Disneyland, dances and In-N-Out. :-)"
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