Are you thinking today's post is about people serving people? If so, you'll soon discover that I'm writing instead to honor the service I have received from one of my most loyal companions...my beloved 2002 Camry Solara SLE...what a great car...although I must say...with one notable exception...every car I have owned has been good to me...
The first car I ever drove was a little 1962 Chevy Nova...it was considered a compact car then...and was big by today's standards...it was gifted to me by my grandparents...they lived in in a very small Tennessee town, where getting my driver's license was as easy as taking the car once around the neighboring town square...and parking her diagonally...
Then came the first car I ever purchased new...a Toyota Celica...I don't remember the year...probably 1974...I do remember being very excited...until about three months later, when my coworker Francine...a bit of a ditz... walked up to my desk and asked "Kathy, did you park funny today?"...I replied that I hadn't and then inquired why she might think so...she answered matter-of-factly "Well, the rear end of your car is sitting on a stack of 4 x 8 sheets of plywood."...she went on to say, with a completely deadpan face, "I told them you wouldn't park that way."...when I rushed to the window and looked in the direction I had parked, there was my still-new-to-me car...the rear end about three feet higher than the front end...a nearby semi...stopped...its tie-down chain broken...wood spilling onto the street...
This was the moment I vowed never to buy another new car...and I didn't...
What came next was the only car I ever truly loved with my whole heart...it was the notable exception I mentioned earlier...a car I would still own today if it not been hit in a freak accident that totaled it...my beloved 1974 BWM 2002...purchased from the Niello dealership in 1976...I knew there was trouble when I checked the oil after I got it home...down an entire quart...
I would not appreciate...until much later...that this moment had revealed to me the real reason this particular car had come into my life...it was so I could service it rather than the other way around...so I would meet the Rhode brothers...Don and Ernie...the best-ever BMW mechanics...the brothers took one look at the car and told me to sell...as soon as possible...so of course I kept it...and began my long-time love affair with both the car and the mechanics who brought her back to condition...
There were a couple of cars following the fateful crash...and even though they were BMWs, neither one ever really felt right...I had to wait for the Solara to fall in love again...which was due...in no small part...to it serving me, rather than the other way around...
