50 years of car ownership to get a soft cushion.

[ThomWV]

There is no real point to what follows, so read it at your own risk.

Back when I was a young boy I read a book* that had, for me, a memorable scene in the first chapter. An old fellow was at an auto race with his daughter. He was deaf as a stone and had a hearing aid, his daughter was near numb with the continuous noise of the race. She said something to him but he didn't hear it because the hearing aid was turned all the way down. She pokes him on the shoulder which gets his attention and he reaches into his shirt pocket to turn the hearing aid up. As he does so he said "Its like a soft pillow for a boney tail" and goes on to explain the advantages of being deaf at an automobile race.

I was nuts about cars when I was young. You never quite get over it either. And as it turns out the vehicles we drive today reflect the childish pleasure we take in performance, because my wife is just like me in this regard. Somehow this popped into my mind earlier today and I got to comparing my first car with my current car. In some ways what I drive today is awfully similar to what I drove back then and in some ways so very much different.

The first car I bought was a 10 year old Chevy and I paid about one eighth of its sticker price new. The car had 80,000 miles on it and was essentially worn out.

Last month I bought a car that was 10 years old, I paid just under one eighth of its sticker price new. It had 216,000 miles on it and everything on it worked.

The latest one is like a soft pillow for a boney tail.

* The "book" was in a monthly selection of Reader's Digest condensed books. My father subscribed, I read. The novel the story was condensed from was titled The Green Helmet.