But LRH buying her first car, with her own hard earned money reminded me of Saucy.
In in 1989 I was still in college. The summer before college I was working a couple of jobs all in hopes of buying myself my first car. The ParentalUnits weren't sure I needed a car in college, but I was convinced I did. So, they said if I could buy it and maintain it, I could have a car. Thus the two jobs.
I had my idea of what I wanted and like any naive teenager I was sure I was going to buying a super cute, well maintained, fast, sporty car. How wrong I was. After driving many cars, I finally settled on Saucy.
A 1975 Toyota Celica...bumble bee yellow.
Now Saucy was quite a car. Bumble bee yellow, black interior, no dents, no scratches, a 5-speed, and in darn good condition for this little car. I bought her off a WSU grad so she also came with 4 studded snow tires. She was perfect for a college student on a budget.
Saucy also had a nice new tape deck (this was the 80's remember) and it had that new feature that it would skip an entire song when you hit FF and go to the next one...remember that? I remember thinking how cool it was that you didn't have to hold down the FF button and keep "guessing" when the song ended.
She was perfect. She was sporty, speedy - relatively, and just what I needed. So I packed her full in August of 1989 and headed to Pullman.
She did her job and bussed me and my friends all over Pullman and into Moscow Idaho when we felt the need for a "road trip" (all 8 miles from Pullman). We were living the life.
Saucy, like many of my cars, not only had a name, but a mascot. Grimmy.
You all remember the cartoon Mother Goose and Grimm? Well I had a stuffed animal version of Grimm that had suction cups on all 4 paws. Grimm road on the gear shift- very provocatively too I might add. Every time Blueberry would get into the car she'd yell, "GRIMM-EEEEE!" It was her thing.
Anyhow, Grimmy road shot gun on the gear shift, or on the back window depending on his mood. He was yellow, Saucy was yellow, it was a match made in heaven.
Saucy did have her problems though. The summer of 1990 before I sold her (we'll get into that) she had a hole in her muffler. And while I thought she sounded like a hot rod, the ParentalUnits said it had to get fixed.
During the school year though she only had a few issues. She had crack in something in the engine and it cost this college student a LOT of $$ to fix it. Still it was worth it.
Then came January in Pullman. It was the weekend and we had been hit with one helluva snow and ice storm. It was cold like only Pullman can get.The wind was whipping through the Stephenson towers and the roads were all iced over.
Saucy was parked in the parking lot in an end spot that you could see when you came round the corner of Stephenson East.
It was in the morning and I was coming back from the bathroom when I hear from the TV room, "Oooo that yellow car just got hit."
OMG...Saucy.
I ran to the window and watched as this little CR-X backed up after hitting my car.
I no sooner recovered from that, within 5 minutes and another car came around the corner and smacked into Saucy. Clearly I needed to move her.
Down I trudge in freezing temperatures only to discover she wouldn't start. All the way back to the 9th floor, call a friend to come jump start Saucy, and wait for him to get there.
In 30 minutes, Saucy got hit 3 more times.
By the time the friend got there and we moved Saucy she had just one little dent on her. She was made of metal man...woot. All the little cars that hit her, however, didn't fair so well. This little CR-X had some serious front end damage. She looked good with her new battle scar.
Still the end of the school year came and I was gearing up to head to Guadalajara Mexico on an exchange program for the first semester of 1990. I didn't need to keep Saucy around for that time and figured it was time to sell her. I worked with a young man (hah - he was my age at the time) who was in need of a car. He offered me $1000 for her to be paid at the end of the summer.
So August rolled around, I had $1000 in my hands and was handing the keys over to this young man. It was bitter sweet to me. She was such a good car and really did treat me well. To this day when I see a Toyota Celica on the street I yell, "GRIMM-EEEE!"
3 comments:
What an adorable little car!!
I hearted Saucy. I remember that terrible-for-Saucy day... That was a prime spot, except during ice and snow :-)
I had a '75 Celica too, when I was in college. Mine was jet black, and I named him Albert. Yeah, the tape deck was the coolest thing back then! Indeed, good things must come to an end. I'm glad you and Saucy had a great time.
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