« Off to Cooperstown | Main | Uhh »
January 10, 2006
The end of an era
If there's something most every American can rhapsodize about, its his first car. My first ever car was a beige, 1991 Ford Explorer. In high school, I dubbed it "The Timobile," and it went by that moniker until I went off to college. For unknown reasons, it soon became known in Dayton circles as "The Shaggin' Wagon." I suppose this is because most every group of friends has to have a car called the Shaggin' Wagon. It was definitely not called that due to the amount of shagging that went on it, of which there was very, very, little.
The car was famous for its messiness and general state of disrepair, as well as its penchant for getting parking tickets. I once got four or five parking tickets within the space of a month, which caused UD Public Safety to put the boot on my car. When it was not getting booted, it was driving people around Dayton and getting me lots of ridicule due to its messiness. I drove the car all throughout college and eventually until I moved to Chicago, where it soon was superseded by my current car, Yoshi.
One time, some friends of mine were walking around the campus when they saw a car wildly back out of a parking space, accompanied by a loud bang. As they told me, they saw the guy driving away while they saw the Shaggin' Wagon staggering and shaking from the impact. Putting two and two together, they ran him down and got all his information. The fucker did about $200 in damage to the car. So, if I never said it before, thanks for nailing that guy.
I bring all this up because today the Shaggin' Wagon is headed for the great garage in the sky. It is a family tradition that when a car has outlived its usefulness, it gets donated to the Lancaster High School vocational program, where aspiring auto mechanics work on the car like mad scientists trying to give life to a cadaver. It's a tax write-off, but I am still sad. My memories are nothing but a tax write-off, you see. Today, the high school people are coming to take my car away, never to be seen again.
I had to clean it out, like I was embalming the car for its funeral. I found all sorts of odd memories, such as high school parking permits, very old CD's, and Wendy's receipts from 2001. Yes, like many things of my childhood, the Shaggin' Wagon will soon be but a distant memory. I'll miss you, old buddy. You did good.
Posted by oz115 at January 10, 2006 01:40 PM
Comments
I was the one who dubbed it the "Shaggin' Wagon" b/c of the very little shaggin' that was goin' on in it. (Too bad you don't have that car now). It was a grand vehicular unit and I'll miss the extreme messiness and random shit we'd find in it.
Our Freshman year of college was definitely defined by the Shaggin' Wagon. It's the end of an era and it will be missed.
Posted by: Stat Boy at January 10, 2006 03:34 PM