September 27, 2019
"Write your life in terms of ten cars from your past. Are you inside or outside the car? Where are you sitting? Who else is there? What's to your right and to your left? Where are you going?"
A writing prompt from Lynda Barry, quoted in "UW-Madison profs Lynda Barry and Andrea Dutton win $625,000 MacArthur 'genius' award" (at the subreddit r/Wisconsin).
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51 comments:
That seems like a cool writing exercise. Good for them.
Of course, Ta-Nehisi Coates was given a MacArthur "genius award." I hope these ladies are more deserving.
Interesting framing of an ages-old question. "Who are you?"
I wonder if I've owned 10 cars? Hmm. We have a blue car now, the one before was dark blue, the one before that was white, before that maroon, before that white and beige (two cars at once), before that, my first car, maroon. That's 7.
I learned to drive in a grey/maroon car (a lovely Dodge Aspen with velour seats), then my parents got a brown Chevette. So, 9 cars that I've driven.
Lynda Barry is a prof? I didn't know that. I'd love to take her class. But, alas, I'm old and live far away.
I'm outside my car. My first one--a FIAT Strada. Looking at it sadly, wishing it were a nicer car and didn't break down so much. Fix It Again Tony.
When discussing these awards 'genius' is always in quotes for some reason...
Someone needs to check under her hood.
I keep my cars a long time. Though I’m in my seventies, I’m not sure I’ve even owned ten different cars.
Yeah that's a good one. I was the youngest so was I was always in back, looking around helplessly while They took me somewhere They wanted to go.
Turned 18 and I never let that shit happen again.
I'm not sure I understand the instructions. Am I supposed to write more about myself or about the cars? If I answer all the questions is that sufficient? What if I can't answer one or more of the questions?
It sounds like one of those vague, open-ended assignments I'd get in grade school where I thought creative license was being encouraged only to find out I was supposed to take the instructions literally...and my grade reflected it.
Maybe that's why I like numbers...
"I wonder if I've owned 10 cars? Hmm."
As written, the prompt doesn't require that you own the car! It's much more interesting if you get beyond the series of cars you've owned and see moments from your past in terms of the cars that were part of the scene. Obviously, your parents' cars are important, but it could also be cars of old lovers, cars that you wanted but couldn't have, cars in movies that affected you, cars that threatened you, cars that you had sex with... (sorry, I was just listening to a podcast that talked about mechanophilia).
I've only owned 7 cars (and I'm 68 years old).
When I was five my aunt had a car with rumble seat which I occasionally was allowed to sit in. My favorite car of all time.
When I was eight my father had green Ford sedan in which we drove to New Hampshire every summer. Every summer it broke down on the way and I remember sitting with my sisters and brothers in various places like inner city Baltimore and by the New Jersey Turnpike while my father wrestled with the situation. It simply seemed interesting, places I had never been, strange situations.
When I was in my late twenties I owned a Citroen Deuxcheveux. It was tiny, when not many cars were tiny, and foreign and people always wanted to ride around in it. At corners, if you leaned altogether in one direction, the car swayed. An incredible number of miles to the gallon. A great city car.
In my thirties I had a red Pony (Ford?) which also got incredible mileage but was big and fast enough to travel in. I went through the snowy Pennsylvania mountains at night going to DC for Christmas. That's when I got used to using a car to explore local history. Since then I've been to almost all the major Civil War battlefields but I remember Antietam best.
In my sixties I got a Honda Civic and drove down to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans and then up to Natchez with my youngest sister. We hadn't really known each other very well - 15 years younger.
The only other car I remember is a Silverado truck I rented in my seventies on vacation when no cars were available and I had to have one. It was so high I almost had to rappel up to the seat; the step was missing. I absolutely loved it. I saw over all the cars in front of me and had almost a 360 degree view because the back window is right behind the driver and it is easy to look out. In that truck I was accompanied by brush, mattresses, firewood, tools, bags for the dump and many new friends. Everyone needs a truck to move things and it's amazing how fast the news gets around about who has one.
I believe I am on my last car. This Honda has thousands of miles to go, maybe more than me. But if I outlive this one, I've noticed that the Millennials are developing electric bikes and there's nice mountain bike I have my eye on. I don't like the styling on most of them and I wish Harley Davidson would put out a line using their styling. Chrome, headlights. VROOOM. Though I suppose, with an electric bike, I wouldn't be vrooming. Maybe there'll be an app controlling a special horn. VROOOM, VROOOM.
When I was five my aunt had a car with rumble seat which I occasionally was allowed to sit in. My favorite car of all time.
When I was eight my father had green Ford sedan in which we drove to New Hampshire every summer. Every summer it broke down on the way and I remember sitting with my sisters and brothers in various places like inner city Baltimore and by the New Jersey Turnpike while my father wrestled with the situation. It simply seemed interesting, places I had never been, strange situations.
When I was in my late twenties I owned a Citroen Deuxcheveux. It was tiny, when not many cars were tiny, and foreign and people always wanted to ride around in it. At corners, if you leaned altogether in one direction, the car swayed. An incredible number of miles to the gallon. A great city car.
In my thirties I had a red Pony (Ford?) which also got incredible mileage but was big and fast enough to travel in. I went through the snowy Pennsylvania mountains at night going to DC for Christmas. That's when I got used to using a car to explore local history. Since then I've been to almost all the major Civil War battlefields but I remember Antietam best.
In my sixties I got a Honda Civic and drove down to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans and then up to Natchez with my youngest sister. We hadn't really known each other very well - 15 years younger.
The only other car I remember is a Silverado truck I rented in my seventies on vacation when no cars were available and I had to have one. It was so high I almost had to rappel up to the seat; the step was missing. I absolutely loved it. I saw over all the cars in front of me and had almost a 360 degree view because the back window is right behind the driver and it is easy to look out. In that truck I was accompanied by brush, mattresses, firewood, tools, bags for the dump and many new friends. Everyone needs a truck to move things and it's amazing how fast the news gets around about who has one.
I believe I am on my last car. This Honda has thousands of miles to go, maybe more than me. But if I outlive this one, I've noticed that the Millennials are developing electric bikes and there's nice mountain bike I have my eye on. I don't like the styling on most of them and I wish Harley Davidson would put out a line using their styling. Chrome, headlights. VROOOM. Though I suppose, with an electric bike, I wouldn't be vrooming. Maybe there'll be an app controlling a special horn. VROOOM, VROOOM.
There's something totemic or mythic about cars in our lives. Last year my family put together a memory book with photos and stories about my dad in honor of his 70th birthday. We went back and forth with ideas and thoughts and the email that spawned the most discussion among my siblings was one asking about the different cars that we had: the ancient Edsel in our garage (my grandfather had a knack for buying lemons), the Hudson my dad drove when dating our mother, the '92 Honda Accord he crashed into an icy snowbank the weekend of his mother's funeral, and on and on.
We just recently re-purchased my first car that I ever bought on my own -- a 2008 Honda Fit. We sold it to my father-in-law when we bought his minivan before our third child was born. We lived as a one-car family for about 6 years, but now we're getting busy enough that we need two cars again. I am SO HAPPY to have it back. It is really a magic car. It is the most basic car in the world -- no fancy gizmos, no sport trim, plain gray fabric seats, manual transmission -- but somehow it is also the most fun. I love driving it on quick errands with my two youngest when the big kids are in school. My 2-year-old begs multiple times a day to go play in "Grandpa's car" because I can't convince him that it's really "Mama's car." I'm going to cry real tears when it's time to actually say goodbye to that car; I love it so much.
I could go on and on. Yeah, that's a good writing prompt!
It is a very evocative concept.
However since I have only owned Japanese and German cars, I won't make it to ten in my lifetime. Maybe the GM and Chrysler fans can regale us regarding their twenty cars, to make up the slack.
In high school I wrote a story about being in a car and idly asking, with increasing urgency, when I could get some water. Eventually, the parents relented and they got off the highway. My older siblings were all in the car too.
My classmates (we read everyone's short stories) didn't understand the point. The teacher commented "Title this story 'Power' and they'll get the point"
Barry's suggestions is awesome. Everyone can relate to a car. I'm in love with my car. Got a feel for my automobile.
Not sure I have 10 cars from my past. Too much time lived in megacities.
I recall driving to Madison from my parents' out east once in my '82 Chevy -- long before google maps. I noticed the temperature gauge was showing warmer and warmer temperatures. I turned on the heat full blast -- it wasn't that cold out, so I was soon pretty uncomfortable. I kept driving and driving, the 'check engine' light came on, the car was still super super hot, and I finally decided to exit the toll road. I got off at 4:30 PM, and right at the exit was a Chevy Dealer, so I pulled in and my faulty heat pump was replaced in an hour with a cheap enough rebuilt one that lasted 'til I sold the car 8 years later.
Another time, my car wouldn't start after I got out from lunch with my parents. But I was at the top of a hill. And at the bottom? A Toyota dealer (I was driving a Toyota at the time). I coasted into the dealership and they fixed it.
I have been supremely lucky in the timing of my car breakdowns (knock on wood).
VW Bug begins the Baby Boomer used car list. It progresses through 1 Datsun 1600 and 1 Peugeot.( added short term were the 2 bought in Walla Walla and sold in Atlanta 3,000 miles later: 1 1951 Buick Roadmaster and 1 1953 Studebaker). Than new stuff was 1 Mercury Marquis and 2 Oldsmobiles , followed by 2 Cadillac Sevilles and 2 Mercedes S class ( and of course the required Chevy Suburban) and ending with a Hyundai Genesis. I got 16, not counting 6+ bought for teens and college students. Like the Beach Boys, I get around.
Perhaps my favorite musical lyric. The imagery not only conjures a place and time I used to know, but obliquely describes how earlier memories change even as you move forward through them.
The photograph on the dashboard taken years ago,
turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every street light reveals a picture in reverse
Nightswimming
...The photograph reflects
Every street light a reminder
Nightswimming
Deserves a quiet night
That sort of writing exercise prompt seems to inspire self-indulgent garbage. A phoned-in-moment from a genius?
Well, my first car was a Ford Pinto. It wasn't the best car amongst my peers at the time. Life has gone downhill since then.
Here are the cars I have owned:
(1)1979 sky blue Ford Pinto. I drove this car from 1983 when I got my license until 1988 when I graduated from college- my parents won it in a contest in 1979.
(2)1987 white Ford Escort hatchback, drove through grad school and my post doc and first month at my job in CT. My father bought it for me at an auction, it was stolen the first month I was in CT.
(3)1995 gold Toyota Corolla, I bought this car after the previous one was stolen. Traded it in in 2004 for the Tacoma.
(4)2004 black Toyota Tacoma. I drove this truck until I gave it to my brother in law in 2015.
(5)2006 red Toyota Tacoma. This truck I will keep until it disintegrates. It belong to my dad who died last year.
I sit in the driver seat of all of them. Past girlfriends are in the passenger seat, and we are going out on dates in first four of them. In the last of them, my father and I are driving back from Boston- the last long road trip the two of us took together- I drove him back from a visit to his middle daughter's home in 2010 (my mother had flown back while he stayed to help my another brother in law rewire a house).
Question is, how do you make car #10, a hearse, not cliché?
I've owned several cars but only one Norton. With the Norton I'd really be going! (When it would start.)
For me, this would be a lot more interesting, if it was about motorcycles. Or airplanes. Cars are pretty boring.
I'm coming up with 17 cars, but I know I've missed a few... (I also know that this list is not necessarily about cars we have owned).
I'm 51 and have owned cars in the US, UK, and Ireland. I'm currently the proud owner of a Ford E-350 and a Toyota Prius. Actually, I haven't any particular pride in either, but the Prius has been a hell of a good car. I'll probably get another.
My first car was a Pinto, too. Baby blue, 2-door, trunk, not a hatchback, all vinyl interior, "manual" air conditioning, AM radio, bucket seats, 4 on-the-floor. Bought as a commuter for my dad, in response to the Oil Crisis. It was the last car my dad bought new for less than $3K. People loved to bad mouth it, but I liked it a lot, it was comfortable, pretty nimble, had good pick up, was cheap to run. I think I've only owned, five cars since then? Let's see,
Ford Escort Wagon (old reliable!)
Ford Explorer (old school, truck styled Explorer, great truck.)
Ford Escort Sedan (Hit a deer careened into a telephone pole and totaled this one after only 3 months)
Ford F-150 (never let me down, but I could never really love it)
Ford Edge (loved this car, sad to see it go after 200K miles)
Ford Explorer (new-style, very swanky but misses the mark with me, prefered the old one.)
James Dean had a love/hate relationship with his Porsche. Owning one was a particularly life changing event. Seinfeld has had far happier experiences with his many Porsches, but James Dean definitely has the most poignant story to tell..
My first car was a yellow 1949 Dodge convertible. I paid $350 for it.
Next came a 1953 Buick Skylark convertible. I loved it and wish I had it now. I paid $600 for it.
In 1968, I bought my first new car, a Ford Mustang convertible. It was candy apple red and I paid $3050 for it.
'61 Bel Air (rust bucket), Morris Minor (bought at a garage sale), Sunbeam Alpine (POS), '69 Torino GT (first cool car), Dasun 710 (first new car), VW Kombi Bus, VW Rabbit, Mitsubishi Gallant, Toyota Corolla "Sports Wagon", Jeep Wrangler, Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, Ford Explorer, Ford Explorer, Mercury Grand Marquis (for reasons), Mercury Mountaineer (Ford Explorer with a top hat), Honda Accord, Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma and a BUNCH of motorcycles.
Now find a pattern there!
Lots of stories...
On a related subject, you know you're White Trash when the number of vehicles parked outside your house exceeds the number of people living inside.
On a related subject, you know you're White Trash when the number of vehicles parked outside your house exceeds the number of people living inside.
Or, you like cars and can afford to collect them..
'61 Bel Air (rust bucket), Morris Minor (bought at a garage sale), Sunbeam Alpine (POS), '69 Torino GT (first cool car), Dasun 710 (first new car), VW Kombi Bus, VW Rabbit, Mitsubishi Gallant, Toyota Corolla "Sports Wagon", Jeep Wrangler, Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, Ford Explorer, Ford Explorer, Mercury Grand Marquis (for reasons), Mercury Mountaineer (Ford Explorer with a top hat), Honda Accord, Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma and a BUNCH of motorcycles.
Now find a pattern there!
Obviously an interesting person. Not satisfied with run-of-the-mill same-as-everybody else- stuff.
Sadz, Olds Delta 88, Chevette, Cavalier, Nissan Sentra, Saturn, Town Car, Geo Prism, Aveo, Fusion.
Only 9 cars in 40 years. 3 new 6 used. Not bad
I'm 67 and haven't owned 10 cars yet. I just run the damn things until it's not feasible to fix them anymore. I've never felt the need to impress people with my chattel property.
I'd still be driving my 1998 Maxima if I hadn't totaled it driving into the back of a Dodge pickup on the way into work. (I was blinded by the light, or distracted, really.) It was only 11 years old [snif].
2010 Forester has 100K miles on it and is good for another 10 years, at least.
EP @2:41 PM: The hope is that a resident needing a vehicle can find one that will start. Or have gas in it, at least.
I've owned 16 different cars and a very wide variety of sizes, types, and quality, but I'd have to describe myself lately as a Brinks truck with a hole in the floor and an ATM on the side. Well armoured, but incapable of protecting the cargo from looting.
1965 Beetle, 1957 MGA, 1970 Porsche 911, 1967 Alfa Romeo GTA, 1975 Ford Galaxy, some shameful Dodge thing I can’t remember, 1975 Triumph TR-6, 1992 BMW 325i, 1980 Porsche 911SC, 1995 Ford F-150, 2003 Subaru Outback, 2007 BMW 530i, 2019 Porsche Cayman S.
That’s a bloody lot of cars. A couple of them I rebuilt. Many of them great to drive.
Not one would make me think of writing a story.
Well, except for the Galaxy, perhaps. I ended up with it because its owner, a good friend of mine, was killed in a plane crash.
Renault 4
Morris Oxford
Volkswagen bug
Oldsmobile Cutlass
Toyota Land Cruiser
Sarao Jeep
Over here its been my wife's cars.
Its been an odd life.
Yeah, this will be a ride down memory lane. I've owned 15 cars since the late sixties; beginning with a MGA in high school, then a cliche beat-up VW Beetle,various uninteresting
transportation vehicles, a mid-eighties Subaru station wagon, on to a new 1991 red Cadillac with that creampuff ride because my wife refused to be seen in a mini van and we as somewhat prominent business people needed something big to haul children and dogs around. Now, at the end of my sixties with no children or a spouse to think of, I drive a Miata, retractable hard top, six speed manual, heated leather seats, killer sound system. My auto experience has been bookended with two foriegn two seater sport cars.
'63 Rambler Ambassador 880 (327 V8) {my parent's car}
'73 Gremlin (256 six) {lost reverse gear, and had to rebuild trans: 6 weeks later}
'70 Plymouth 'Cuda (383 Magnum, Hurst 4speed, 3.91 posi rear) {YES! as cool as it sounds!}
'1969 Datsun Sports 1600 SPL311 Roadster {lost 2nd gear, and had to junk, the next spring}
'69 Buick Electra 225 {nothing ever went wrong on this car}
'67 Dodge GTS {left ball joint failed, and wheel would bend under car if you turned left" sold}
'70 Plymouth Swinger (225 Slant Six) {Lost a bolt on the #5 piston cap, Then (10 miles later) lost the other bolt; Piston slid down, and crankshaft knocked connecting rod THROUGH the side of the engine block: Rod jammed in hole in block (big enough to put your hand into (Yes, I did). Engine continued running on 5 cylinders, but oil lost was VERY high (through hole in block... Until oil was gone, then oil lost dropped to nothing. Drove home, and the next day drove to junk yard (total, about 45 miles as 5 cylinder, 20 miles without oil }
Every other car i ever owned, was/is a piece of Junk
OH!
Of ALL the cars i listed; THE MOST that i paid, for Any of them; was $2000 in 1981 for the 'Cuda
Of EVERY other car (except my parents), i never paid more than $500
How's that compare to your super japo buckets?
'59 cream-colored Studebaker Lark 2 door station wagon. Parked overlooking the city lights, around midnight, spring semester 1968. On my left, knocking on the side window, a deputy sheriff. On my right, a completely naked girl from my French class, daughter of the Speaker of the (State) House. At 16, I thought a cool car was what I needed to get laid. At 19, I found French and an air of self-confidence was sufficient to do the trick.
My first car was a 1968 Datsun station wagon that my parents owned, but it was mine to drive because they were tired of carting me around and now I could carry my little sister around too. It was basic -- no A/C, no radio. I think windshield wipers were an add-on. During those years I occasionally drove my Dad's pickups and my Mom's Lincoln or Cadillac. Mom had this yellow Lincoln that did not have variable ratio steering... now that was a hoot. It took some planning to turn into the driveway.
Oldest car I owned was a 1953 Buick. Smoothest ride ever, but the radiator didn't work very well. Still fun. Others included a 1966 Mustang (fitted out just like the Datsun) 1972 Corvette convertible, another Buick or two (a turbo-charged Regal and a LeSabre) a Mercury something, an Audi, a Cadillac or three (hated the '83 Deville but loved the '98 with the NorthStar), Chrysler New Yorker, F-150, Chevy Silverado, a Mazda pickup (worst vehicle ever), 1988 Ford LTD, 1968 Pontiac Executive (rode almost as good as the '53 Buick), and my favorite vehicle of all time -- 1983 Taurus SHO. I actually had two of them, as the first was a Lemon eventually replaced by Ford. During the time that first SHO was in the shop (more often than not) I drove almost everything Enterprise rented.
In 2011, I traded my 1998 Cadillac in on a 2010 Corolla and then acquired a 2012 Avalon. I traded both of those for a 2016 Sienna because it was low enough that I could get in it and high enough that I didn't fall out of it plus room for a wheel chair and a walker. So I've owned 15+ vehicles - I've lost count. But I've driven many more, including Kenworth and Peterbilt.
When I bought the Sienna, I was thinking this will be the last vehicle I will own. Then I rode in one of those new Dodge pickups that so kindly lowered itself so I could easily get in and out... and now, I'm not so sure.
I understand the mentality of driving a vehicle until it just won't go anymore. Some of those vehicles mentioned above were acquired with 90,000+ miles on them and I put many more. Some were purchased new, the 1988 LTD for example... traded in with 160,000 miles on it. Some of them didn't last 10,000 miles (the early 80s Audi with electrical problems got booted quickly!)
You're a car person or you're not. You drive a lot or you don't. I think a lot of this depends on where you live. Mostly I was in Texas, traveling to Arizona or South Carolina. Or Michigan. Or just to Dallas or Austin.
Write your life in terms of ten cars from your past.
"Your life", just the other day I went past well over ten cars.
Or did they go past me?
Are you inside or outside the car?
Inside the car.
Where are you sitting?
Inside the car.
Who else is there?
BunHun is inside the car.
What's to your right and to your left?
Dog inside the car, head out window; the street centerline.
Where are you going?
Inside the car, in a beer bottle.
My first car was a 1969 VW bug, US spec, bought brand spanking new in Glasgow, Scotland, for the equivalent of $1600 American. The Navy was going to ship it stateside for free when my tour was up. The only way I could pay for it was with cold, hard, cash, which involved me taking the bus halfway across Glasgow with a wad of 5-pound notes in my coat pocket the size of the paperback Gone With The Wind. Th VW dealer had a machine to count it, or I would have been there all day.
Let's see:
1973 Ford Torino Station wagon (baby blue)
1976 Dodge Aspen
1970s Ford Pinto station Wagon - fake Woodie panels and a V-6. wrecked it.
1980s Volkswagon Rabbit (crushed by a Lincoln)
1980s Toyota Tercel hatchback
Late 1980s Dodge mini-van
1990s Dodge Neon
1990s Suzuki Wagon
2005 Jeep Liberty
2000s Ford Escort Wagon
2010s Ford Escort Wagon, just a different color
None new, and all but the wrecked ones were driven until unfit for human transportation, well them too, but not a natural car death.
And now that I think about it, that Ford Galaxy was involved with another friend. Who also died. In a plane crash.
Those Galaxies are death traps.
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