I have the most amazing family! I know that I may a little partial in saying that but it is true. I figured to start my blogging experience I would do stories about my family and growing up as a Walker!
One part of my childhood that always comes up with friends is my first car. My family is very loyal to GM. We prefer a Chevy to any other make and my mom has always driven Cadillacs. She is currently on her 5th one. It is a good thing that we didn't change this since her Caddie is what saved my mom, dad and 2 family friends lives when a driver cut through a median and hit them head on! If they had not been in that Caddie they would not have walked away!
My mom had two Caddies before I was old enough to drive. Both were Devilles and they could book it which mom ended up having to pay for a few times. Our family has never really been easy on our vehicles. My dad is a self-professed mechanic. Don't get me wrong he is great when it comes to Peterbilt or a diesel engine but when comes to a simple car he likes to cut corners. He will fix something when it is broken but the question is always how long it will last. Our cars hardly ever see a dealership or a real auto shop once they are brought home, Dad insist on fixing it himself. So each of our vehicles had "personality" or a "combination" was needed to get them to run. This deterred anyone from stealing them but it also made some trips longer then necessary. This goes for anything that had an engine in our house, the lawnmower, the tractor, the furnace... Dads "fixes" were everywhere! We would tell people that they had been Walkerized.
All of this leads to the Caddie my mom got when I turned 8..... fast forward to me turning 16 and getting the news that the Caddie is mine. I whined and complained as often as possible. Not only was it old but it was a grandma car and I didn't want to be seen driving a grandma car. Along with its age it had some sounds and dents and mom tended to be easy on it while driving so I thought that it was slower than the other Caddies we had previously. I complained about this one day while riding with my Dad and he decided to show me rather than tell me that was not the case. We were on a back road that had several blind curves and lined with trees where animals could jump out of at any moment but that didn't matter, my dad had a point to prove. We stopped at a stop sign and then Dad laid the hammer down. Tha Caddie reached 85 effortlessly! Looking back he probably regrets showing me this since the caddie turned me into the lead foot driver that I am. I never got a ticket in the caddie, maybe because the cops thought they couldn't catch me or because they didn't feel like pulling a grandmother over that day, but the tickets rolled in once I got in different vehicles.
So I came to accept that this would be my car and prepared myself for when I got my driver's license. The first day was eventful!! It was summer and my best friend and I had decided we wanted to go out on the boat. I got up that morning and made a sad attempt to make the Caddie cool. Since the radio didn't work I had to come up with something.. I went to the church library and checked out a small boom box. This was my radio for the rest of the year! When ever I had a passenger, usually Caroline, they would hold it in their laps and be in charge of the music. At least the boom box had a CD player so we could listen to Backstreet Boys and N'sync, and of course this gave the Caddie some of that personality that I mentioned earlier.
I picked Caroline up from her house and we made our way to my dock. The interior was leather so it was extremely hot against our legs since we were wearing shorts and of course getting out meant unsticking yourself gently. We got to the beach and pulled over into the grass where everyone usually parks and put the car in park. Then there is a loud bang and the whole cars rocked back and forth. The gentlemen who actually owns the beach where we keep our boat, Doc, was pulling out of his driveway and just never saw me. I was completely out of the road and on the grass but he had made a wider turn then usual when puling out of his driveway and just ran smack into me! Caroline and I both screamed and then realized that we were fine. All I could think was "Seriously, on my first day" and "Great Caroline's parents won't ever let me take her anywhere!" Doc felt awful and kept apologizing!! When Doc left he went straight to his insurance company and told them to call my parents and let them know that he was completely at fault and would pay for any damages.
So my first day of driving by myself was eventful and gave the Caddie even more personality since my Dad decided to pocket the insurance check since the damage wasnt that bad. Now I had a busted head light, trim missing on my bumper and fender and a boom box for a radio. Other then some scary sounds every once in a while, the Caddie never failed me but then one day I was driving home and a friend called me. She was following me into town and said "You need to pull over! Your CAR is on FIRE!" It wasn't really on fire but had smoke rolling out of it from the rear so I never saw it. I pulled over to find that my belts were in shreds everywhere. The AC had locked up and belt just finally busted! My friend drove me to Napa to get a new belt so I could replace it and drive the car to my dads shop/middle of a cow pasture where we kept and fixed our trucks. Dad "fixed" the AC and checked all my belts. From then on the AC made a scary sound every time you turned it on! The last part of the Caddies personality was the radio. The actual radio that was installed in the car didn't work but it had secret powers. If you turned it on and it squealed, there was probably a cop near by, NO JOKE! It also was possessed. The cigarette lighter in the front didn't work so my cell phone charger had to be plugged into the lighter plug in the back seat. One day I was driving home and the phone was charging. The phone starts ringing but the ring tone isn't coming from the phone, it coming from my speakers It scares me to death because it was very loud. I am kind of sacred to answer the phone but when I do the voice comes through my speakers for a second and then through the earpiece. Sadly this never happened again, in a way it was my own hands free phone.
I ended having the Caddie for less than a year and had a lot of fun driving everyone around. It was very roomie I could take the group of us wherever we wanted to go, but once everyone else started getting nice cars I had to suck it up and become a passenger. We eventually sold the Caddie to man who worked for my dad and he fixed it up. It is one good looking car and he keeps it running perfectly! All in all, it was a great first car and gave me plenty of memories!
