We recited the lines along with Bob Barker telling the contestant onstage that "I'd love to give you this..." pause, pause...and then along with Johnny Olson voice overing: "A NEW CAR!" and the screens would open to reveal a shiny new Mustang or convertible with a blonde model standing next to it for emphasis, as if to say, "sure! I come with the car! Aren't we a sexy pair?"
Then the guy or gal would do some wild seventies dance which we would sometimes do in unison. After all, what could be better than a shiny new car? Cars were everything in my young mind. Advertising promoting superficial values worked well on me and I envisioned my future on Rodeo Drive driving a different Rolls Royce for every day of the week. My soccer coach picked me up weekly in his Rolls or Mercedes and I figured as a "famous actress," I'd be able to afford at least ten times that and more, for he was just a soccer coach, after all. Naivete comes in handy when your just a young girl with stars in your eyes.
The truth is I never owned a NEW CAR! In fact, I have a really hard time with new. New clothes, new things for the house, books, etc all tend to sit around for a good while before I am brave enough to remove the plastic/tags/etc and use them. I've had four cars in my young life, all of which have been hand-me-downs from my dad. Last week I had to retire the last, Odelle, in the father-daughter line because it's getting time to put her down.
The irony is that I'm not one bit of a car gal. My enthusiasm for shopping for a "new" car these past weeks was akin to shopping for a vacuum. Not that I don't love, "Four," my new 2010 Prius... not that she won't be part of the family in no time. It's just that she's too... new. I'm afraid of her. I don't want to hurt her and I'm just a tiny bit concerned that she doesn't feel the same about me. I'm not sure were that well suited; I may not be hip enough for her. If cars were assigned based on hipness, I'd be assigned the horse and buggy. Essentially she's like my Smart Phone, but she moves; it's been two years and I still haven't figured out my phone yet... heck maybe it moves too! In any case, I don't want her to get the wrong idea about my lifestyle...I don't know if I can keep up with her. She's much more advanced in the ways of the modern world than I, makes a bold statement about the current times, which she obviously knows a lot more about than I do.
So then Four is a Smart Car; she's a machine that also happens to drive, which I am starting to figure out, but it's taking me a while. Did you know I can answer the phone with my steering wheel? I can also watch a DVD while cruising down 94. It plays a million CDs at a time and even has satellite radio; I don't know what satellite radio is. Nothing surprises me since going to House on the Rock this past summer, but how am I supposed to concentrate on my driving when I'm trying to sync up my phone with my car via bluetooth and I don't even know what Bluetooth is. Does it have anything to do with someone's mouth? She has an onscreen map that tells me exactly where I am, where I've been and where I'm going, meaning she has a much better memory than I do. The kicker is that you don't need a key to start her up. That's right, just like the future promised. When Jude, my six-year-old, got in today for the first time he must have thought he walked into a moving video game because as I was remembering how to start it (really), he goes, "Can I push some buttons too, Mama?" I couldn't explain why or why not. "Later," I said, which I will regret. I believe I'm still in shock, still forcing my brain into a cognitive reality it is not yet willing to embrace. When Too Cute Face got in, he couldn't stop repeating how much it resembled a spaceship. I think that was how he handled the shock.
Keep in mind, neither of us has spent much time in a car built before 2000 and if we had our way, we'd all go by bike and foot.
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| A NEW CAR!!! |
If Bob Barker back in the seventies would have shown us the car of the future on The Price is Right, Four would have been it for sure. I can just imagine little me on Li's couch, wide-eyed with relief, dreaming of my future life where all I would need to get out of LA and live happily ever after was a click of a button or wave of the hand. Good old Bob Barker and his Hollywood pals had convinced me it was that easy and I couldn't afford to imagine it any other way. Some day life would be too good to be true.
WHAT IS YOUR (NEW)CAR STORY?
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WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY (Good) News
I got a new car!
WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY (Happy) Announcements
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♥♥UPCOMING ♥♥♥ ♥ ♥
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