Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cars I Have Known and Loved

The Great Pumpkin. As he was . . .

It started in college.
With Snoopy and The Great Pumpkin.
Maybe I should explain . . .
I love cars.
The older, the better, it's true.
But really, any cars.
When I went to college, my Dad put a down payment on a bright, new, orange beauty for me.
A Dodge Colt.
Any extra money I had was squandered on it.
Any extra time was spent under the expert tutelage of my older brother, traipsing through its inner workings.
We were inseparable, my car and me.
But it was my roommate at school who actually gave my beauty its name.
Debbie, said roommate, drove a little white Chevy.
Named Snoopy.
What else could she call my car but, The Great Pumpkin.
Okay, here's where I admit that the name suited.
The car was orange.
And kind of . . . round.
Great Pumpkin, it became.
And a new tradition was begun.
After the Pumpkin, we drove such darlings as: The Frog. Ralphie. Bluee. WagonHo. WagonHo 2. Lady. The Beast.
And a little firefly named Zippy.
Something to note: We fit my Husby, myself, an eleven-year-old, two nine-year-olds, a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, a two-year-old and a baby in a carseat into that sturdy little firefly.
And made it, unscathed, to church.
Sometime, I'll explain the logistics of such a feat.
Another aside: Our second son, Erik, he of the six foot eight inch height, ended up driving little Zippy. Watching him unfold from that compact little car was a treat in itself.
Back to my story . . .
I don't know where these names came from.
Sometimes, they resulted from some little quirk in a vehicle.
Sometimes from the appearance.
But they caught on.
To the point where people who weren't even in our family knew the names of our cars.
And used them accordingly.
Our children, too picked up the habit.
Our one daughter's family, for example, have driven, successively: Phoebe, Elene, Persephone and Owlyet (the last one named by their daughter).
Because.
Presently, my Husby and I are driving two elderly pick-up trucks.
A 1994 Dodge Dakota with a skin condition, appropriately named Scabbers.
And a 2000 GMC Sonoma, with a bit of a balky nature, encouragingly and hopefully called Everready.
All aboard!

18 comments:

  1. I used to have a car named Ruby. She was so sweet! I have a friend who is six-foot seven and drives a volkswagon. So funny!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruby! Great name! I'll have to remember that one . . .

      Delete
  2. Hee hee hee. We were waffling on what to call that van, and then she just burst out with "Call him Owlyet!"

    Don't know why, but cars seem to work just a little better when they have a name...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes! Yes! I love old cars too. I'm still grieving my 1978 red toyota corolla that I drove in high school. :(

    It would have been called tomato!

    (thanks for accepting my fb request!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So good to be friends! Tomato would be a great name for a car!

      Delete
  4. And now I'm remembering my '68 Ford Falcon, whose headlights pointed up in the trees: The Coon Hunter. I eventually fixed the lights, but to this day I look up in the trees for racoons...

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm . . . raccoon hunting with cars. Genius! Treeing them could be a problem . . .

      Delete
  5. That is so cute Diane, I love when people have names for their cars:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Let's see, my friend, Dennis, had a '65 Dodge that was black and blue; we called it 'The Bruise.' Reed had the rusted remains of a '60 Lancer (American Dodge version of the Valiant) which was aptly named the 'Maserati.' I had (and still have) 'Brownie' which is my '79 GMC that I've owned since new and became one of my best friends (more to that later). My wife had a 'Chintzy Recycled Velocipede' and now drives a Tupperware Special (Saturn Vue)

    ReplyDelete
  7. We used to have two little gray hondas by the names of Rhonda and Wanda, a PT Cruiser called Black Beauty and now we have a Chrysler 200 named The Wild Child. I don't believe we ever named the van.

    ReplyDelete
  8. My mother named every car. Sarah! I never named any car until I bought the van I drove to shows. I named her Sarah, and told her I would take good care of her and I expected her to take good care of me. We both lived up to expectations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah. A good, dependable, perfect name for a companion!

      Delete
  9. What a funny and unique story you have here! :) And the names? They are simply cool like those cars you mentioned! :)

    ReplyDelete

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