I'll Be Missing You

Losing an old friend is a hard thing to do. I’ve just lost an old friend. This friend was not a person, but an automobile. I have donated my 1990 Lincoln Town Car to a person that needed it much more than I did. His car had died and he had no way to get to work. With a minimal investment for minor repairs, he is on the road again, and can continue to earn an income.

I hadn’t driven this car since last November, although my number one son was driving it in December and proclaimed it to be dead just before Christmas. I am not mechanically inclined so I listened to my son and neighbors when they told me that I needed a new ignition system. I decided that the cost of repairing this problem would outweigh my need for a vehicle (In actuality all it needed a new battery and spark plug wires).

When I calculated the cost of insurance, annual license fees and gasoline. I was spending nearly $2 for every mile that I drove (less than 400 in 2006) per year. Taxis are less expensive and I have friends are willing to cart me around to the grocery store etc. My favorite store (At Cost Liquors) even delivers my essentials to me. The owners are friends and do not mind stopping off at my apartment on their way home.

That 4800 pounds of metal, that machine, had been a good friend to me for the past seven years. I will miss seeing it in my parking space.

I hadn’t been too nice to my friend. I only washed it four times in the past seven years. With the salt air here on the beach, the paint had faded and rust had taken it's toll. I had been a negligent to my friend, not appreciating what it had done for me over the course of the years.

I’ll truly miss my friend. Each day, when I stare at the empty space that my old friend once occupied, I’ll reminisce about the good times that we had shared. I’ll remember the simple things that brought joy to me. And I’ll never forget, what British Author Michela Wrong said when she road down Gulf Blvd. in this car in 2002: “What a posh ride”!

The Beach Bum