Our Life Story Told By Our Cars #20-22

Umatilla, Florida

We moved from Vermont, to West Charlton, NY.  I still had George.   

We went to my father once more (the last time I think) and bought this Plymouth.  It was a pretty nice car.  It lasted until I wrecked it one day in Thomas Corners, Glenville, NY.

Dave was living in Alaska, but he came to visit for Thanksgiving.  He borrowed the blue Plymouth to drive to Vermont to see his friends; and on that trip he went in a ditch.  His return flight to Alaska departed the next morning.  So, in the night Libby and I drove George to Vermont.  I drove Dave back, while Libby got the Plymouth repaired in Vermont.   That was a bad day.

George was approaching end of life, so we needed so we bought this brand new Saturn for Libby. Other than the Saab, this was the only new car we ever bought. 

The Saturn had a stick shift and it was fun to drive.

When we started cruising on Tarwathie. in 2005, we left the Saturn with Jen.  After a year or so of cruising, we asked Jen to get rid of it for us, so she sold it.  Thanks Jen.

After wrecking the blue Plymouth, I needed a car so I bough t this Nissan pickup.   I was a fireman at the time, so owning a pickup was nearly mandatory.

It was a clunker.  Full of mechanical problems.  One day, on the way to work, I got broadsided.  That wrecked the passenger side door, but the truck still ran, so I drove it that way for a year or two without fixing the door.

When we started cruiding on Tarwathie, we gave the truck to Nick.  He junked it.

Our Life Story Told By Our Cars #17-20

Umatilla Florida

When we moved from Sweden to Vermont, this was our first car. I had always wanted a minivan, so that was the attraction.   It was a Toyota.  It had stick shift.

Jenny said that she learned how to drive on that car.

After a while we began having trouble.  After close inspection, I could see a line of corrosion from the ground up to hip level.  I concluded that it has been flooded in salt water!!!

I complained to the Toyota dealer.  They denied that it was flooded.  However they took it on trade for another car.  I used it to buy a car for Jenny who was just graduating from high school.  I selected a Nissan Ultima, that I thought would be a reliable car for Jen.  She hated it!!! My bad; I should have not tried to surprise her, but brought her to the dealer instead so she could choose herself.

I went back to my father again to help us buy a car.  He came up with one like that, a Chrysler Lebanon.    It was pretty cool, with a big engine, and a turbocharger.   Most fun, it had an audio voice system.  That sounds mundane today, but back then it was innovative.  Because of the voice, we named the car George.  I used to joke.  George would say, "Your door is ajar."  I would reply, "A door is not a jar." or "No, your door is adjar."

When George got old and cranky, in the morning the first time someone touched the door handle, George would recite his entire repertoire of sentences.  It was as if he was lonely, and it encouraged us to think of George as "he."  That's not so different than thinking of Tarwathie as "she."

[Libby said that there was another car she bought before this one, some kind of blue Chrysler.  I don't remember that at all, and I have no picture.]

After some time, I started working in Conneticut while living in Vermont.   Libby needed a car while I was gone, so we bought this one.  I never drove that car, so I don't have much to say.

When Dave got his license, Libby let him borrow that car to go to school.  He wrecked it one morning right around the corner of our house.  

End of that car.


Libby went without a car for the remainder of our time in Vermont.  She said, "I wanted to teach Dave that cars were not disposable things that you can just wreck and replace."