SOL26: March 20: Essie and Clifford

I am writing with The Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life group this month.  During last night's small group, Laney suggested we write memories about our cars. I started thinking about Patty, who looked like an inside out peppermint patty, and Heidi, who liked to pop her top! Then, I thought about the fuel efficient vehicles I have known, such as

Essie, who was part of my new-to-me school, with a longer commute, and my grad work, in the big city, era of life. Her back seat was not fit for passengers, but she boasted about getting 50 miles per gallon as she glided in the tailwinds of the bigger cars on the highway. 

Essie loved her morning runs and even if she was tiny, she proved to be mighty. She did have one issue and that was her lack of an automatic transmission. In order to enter the highway where cars where already moving as if it was the Indy 500, you had to in a engage her clutch and shift from neutral to first gear, and then to second, and then to third, and then to fourth gears. All this had to happen in less than 3 seconds, going from 0 to 65, in what always seemed to be the speed of light. Clearly, it was not a time to sip your coffee. Instead it was a two hands gripping the wheel saying a prayer you did not stall her delicate engine moment. EVERY single time, my life flashed before my eyes as I defied death and headed to school.

That is why after 150,000 hard miles, she asked for and I happily granted her a retirement job going back and forth to the local community college.  It had been as stressful for her as for me.  That is when Clifford entered my life.  He who was still a puppy but a wee bit bigger than Essie.  He loved to run as fast as he could (although a Ford Focus was not considered a sports car in any market) and was thrilled to spend his days in the parking lot of an elementary school (where sometimes students read about his namesake) and his nights in a NYC parking garage! Like his namesake, he was energetic, bubbly, and bright red! 

Everything you might have heard about fire engine colored cars is accurate! He taunted the local police and managed to get us into a few squirmishes with the local constables; yet, he was a breeze to find in any parking lot and you could not miss him as he merged in the early morning darkness where only commuters go and shifted his tiny gears all by himself!