Mourning our Loss

Yesterday, my father informed me of the passing of "my" first car - Charlie. He was a good car and had served our family well for many years. This 1979, blue, four-door Chevy Chevette was a gift to my family from the Woodfords back around 1988 or so. He travelled with us in 1990 when we moved to Nashville, and became the main car that my dad drove around in. When Jesse rolled our other blue Chevette ('78, 2-door), Charlie became his to drive. I think Charlie stayed with the family when Jesse went to college because we drove him up to Maryland that year during spring break (and he threw a rod on the way back). Daddy got the engine fixed/replaced/something, and Charlie became "mine." That's when he got his name. The three friends that I'd bring to school in the mornings and I would see who could name the singer the quickest on WAMB "The Music of Your Life" (mostly 40s and 50s crooners). That was pretty much the only station we listened to because he only had an AM radio, and the knob didn't work very well, so once you found a station, you pretty much were stuck with it. I got pretty good at knowing the difference between Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Perry Como, and Andy Williams. I was never as good at the girl singers.

When I went to college, Charlie reverted to Jesse. At some point, one of his rear panels was replaced with a brown one, but he motored on...until a few days ago. He'd been burning oil pretty badly and the level hadn't been checked, so Charlie breathed his last.

Goodbye, Charlie. You were a good car. I hope you go to car heaven where there's oil aplenty and lots of people who like AM radio. We'll miss you.