Small and blue
I have not driven a car very much. Through my whole life. I did the Mandatory education in a Driver’s Ed car and I did use my father’s vehicle to go up and down the local streets. But for all of that I depend on others. In the final years of high school my buddy had a car. A small car. A blue car. One with a hole in the roof. Fine German engineering. Built by Volkswagen and marketed as the Beetle or the Bug or both. What set this car apart from other cars was the heating system. I do not think we ever found the control to turn on the heat. And since we lived in a place where winter went on for many many months we learn to freeze. One of the biggest trips we would make was up the highway. As I remember, 17 miles, to a local arena where rock bands would play. And after each concert we would drive home. Waiting to be warm again. I had an important job. I was tasked with keeping the frost off the windows. Allowing the driver to see enough of the road ahead should get us from here to there. This was not the kind of comfort that we now enjoy. The idea of a heated steering wheel was decades ahead. We were tough. That hole in the roof known as a sunroof I think was designed as an escape hatch. There was a program on TV about soldiers in the desert war in small vehicles that had a hole in the roof. The lookout could stick his head out and seek enemy vehicles. And so that is what we did anytime the wind dropped to a point were freezing was not instant. I have no idea what happened to that car. As I said it was small and blue and lacked even the most rudimentary of heating. Fine engineering if you live in the desert I guess. But we didn’t. I think that the car was purchased to replace an earlier vehicle which had been crushed by a snow plow. I saw that instance. The roads were icy and we bumped into the Driver’s Ed car driver. Two cars totalled. Such other things we remember a lifetime later. Being cold and almost being killed.
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