Friday, August 14, 2009

Tonight I saw a white Toyota Tercel, complete with a spoiler, in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I believe it was 1995 model. I almost teared up as I exclaimed to Andy, "Look! There's my car!" Alas, it was not my car, but oh how I wish it was!!

For anyone who doesn't know, Midge was my car. Midge
was a cutie...glistening white paint, cute spoiler, very petite, very low-maintenance, and great gas mileage too! She and I had some great times. I remember taking her out on many a country road. A couple of times we drove to the peach orchard. Countless times we went gazing at our spot...where the fireflies twinkled like fallen stars (its truly a fantastic spot that only lasts for 2 weeks and few people know about...). She loved to whip around tight curves; she loved to go as fast as I'd let her (an actual number will never be given...but its higher than you think). Midge endured countless off-key notes being sung, her poor horn being beeped at so many unruly cars, banging on the steering wheel when I was mad. She survived driving up on a sidewalk and exiting the sidewalk on the handicap ramp after I sneezed too hard and swerved...absurd I know. She survived me taking speed bumps too fast, and she was always willing to endure any potholes we encountered. I loved Midge. I still do really. I drove her in high school, to and from my Biology, math and logic classes. She faithfully transported me to Crichton College to get dual credit courses. She always found a spot on my college campus of CBU...and managed to survive getting her hubcaps stolen a couple of times. My longest lasting friendships from CBU started in Midge, the night I got pulled over for making a U-turn while John & Debra and I were on our way to the movies. Midge carried me through many a Taco-Bell, Starbuck's, and McDonald's drive through.

She had her faults, don't get me wrong. Her air conditioning went out, she had no CD player (though Andy provided me one once we were dating). Midge didn't have a lot of "get up and go", nor did she have any power features. But that didn't stop her from being the best car on the planet!


I learned to drive in Midge at the age of 15. While she wasn't my first car, she was the car I've had the longest. Many of my students rode in that ca
r at some point or other. I picked up girls for Bible Study, took girls to lunch, carried students to the fire station to drop off cookies, and a bunch of other things. My friends all made fun of her at one point or another, but she was loved by them despite her quirks.

At the age of 12, Midge passed away. She had over 250,000 miles and I believe had a lot more life left in her. She was crushed by a driver, who could have killed my husband (of 2 weeks at the time), and did kill my poor Midge. The next day, her relatively new CD player was stolen while awaiting her autopsy results. I'll never forget the day...An
dy called me to say he was OK. I asked what happened to the car. He said both the airbags deployed, but he was OK; I was only thinking of how bad Midge must be if both the airbags went off. Andy explained what happened (he really could have been severely injured and I'm so glad he wasn't hurt at all!) and I started crying over Midge. I asked if Midge was totaled. Andy was kind enough to have it towed to a friends auto shop "to check and see if its totaled." Of course she was! She couldn't withstand that amount of trauma.

This probably sounds very str
ange and reads more as an amusing story rather than a serious ode to my beloved car. However, as non-sentimental as I am, there's no way I could make any of this up. I still have her key. I can't seem to part with it. I miss driving my little car. Rest In Peace Midge...or as Andy says, rest in pieces.

2 comments:

Maria said...

Oh Rach, I feel your pain. It was a great car. You were there on my car's final day. (oh and I still have the mustang from the hood so I don't judge you having the keys)

~Maria

Rachel said...

thanks for your support maria!! our poor cars....