This past weekend we said a sad farewell to Yellow Car. She came into our lives at a time of great stress; I was newly separated, Ellie was a new driver and there was no money to do something like buy another car for her. It made me sad, but as so often happens an opportunity presented itself… Ellie had worked that summer and following a kind offer from a friend she funded Yellow Car herself. We didn’t understand all there was to understand when we were first offered her, but by the time we realized that she was bright yellow and a stick shift we were committed, in mind if not in body and Ellie paid for her first car! I was equal parts bursting with pride and sad for yet another loss she was experiencing. Undoubtedly, if the Former Mr Right had stayed we would have been just like all the other parents in Saratoga and beyond and bought her a car. I think that made us love Yellow Car just a little bit more, that and the enormous difference it made to our household having a second driver and second car!

Yellow car had lived through several eras before coming to live with us; she had been loved before, but had spent the last few years parked on a driveway with a broken engine and had become home to a family of mice. This caused a major hazmat clean up operation and I’m not sure she ever really lost that musty smell. But with help from our friends at Relia-tech they fixed her and prettied her up; and suddenly it felt she was proud of joining us and was up for the challenge of the miles she had ahead of her. 

Ellie always considered this next era Yellow Car’s most difficult. She was ready and raring to go, but we weren’t! We had completely misjudged the transition of teaching a new driver who had learnt to drive an automatic, how to change gear. Those few weeks were challenging; Ellie was frustrated, but slowly, slowly she was getting there. Despite thinking that maybe this had not been as perfect a purchase as we’d hoped finally, with a little help from YouTube videos on the mechanics behind a stick shift she finally got it; she could finally hear when the engine needed her to change gear and she could coordinate doing that with taking her foot off the clutch and not stalling, at least not every time anyway! And as they say the rest is history… we spent hours driving together around our neighborhood slowly and built up her confidence, until I didn’t have to accompany her anymore with shouts of ‘second’, ‘third’, ‘up’. And before we even realized we had moved to the final era we spent with Yellow Car.

For the last two years she has been a part of us. My friends recognized her, we knew where Ellie was in the parking lot and she could never hide for long. Ellie put thousands of miles on her during this time and traveling to Gore twice, sometimes three times a week she never once let her down. But she was getting old, she was becoming like an elderly aunt you could never fully rely on. Although not extreme she was beginning to cost us money in repairs and an ongoing front tyre issue meant we had called the emergency insurance company out too many times… We had thought Ellie would be in DC now and that we could ignore the Yellow Car issue a while longer; but with our move we began to think of needing more reliability. And, as so often happens an opportunity presented itself.

We turned two cars and a car loan into two more appropriate cars and a slightly bigger, but totally manageable loan and Ellie is now the proud owner of a Grey Jeep Renegade and I may have a new red car too! You’re going to have to sign up for this week’s email though if you want to see pictures of my car!

I truly hope Ellie’s new car is filled with as much music, love and laughter as Yellow Car was. As much winter sports equipment, and maybe even some blueberry muffins. I was sad to see the back of her this weekend and I may have even shed a tear. I hope of all the eras of her life this last one was her favorite.

Can you remember your first car? Did you give it a name? A gender? Can you share a picture with us?

Be kind, be gentle…

Denise xoxo