A fun story for the family, but if you want to hear how Elder Reid is doing, skip this one...
In 1989, shortly after we welcomed Derek into the family, we bought this baby! A brand new Mazda 626 with a five speed manual. She had 144 miles. Oh what a ride it’s been!
At the time, Poppa Reid was driving a big ol’ Ford pick-up with a lift kit nick named Big Foot. So Blythe in the wisdom of a child, decided that must mean our new car was Lil' Foot! Little did she and Derek know, "Lil' Foot" would one day become their prize possession! When Poppa Reid handed over the keys to his precious 16 year old daughter, he also put a $400 sound system in it – which at the time was probably worth more than the car itself. So off Lil' Foot went on some new bump thumpin adventures! The next thing Blythe discovered was the “date eject button” – if you rolled the window down on the passenger side, the car door opened – so if she had a guy with her that she deemed a dork boy, she could just say “hey, will you roll that window down?” and as soon as the door latch un-hitched she could make a swift left turn and out the poor dork boy would go, ha ha! Later on we hooked her up with a Honda, also five speed manual, so she could head to college and Derek could take the reigns of the ol' car with the same birth year as his. Yes, he was quite thrilled (insert sarcasm).
Now the bump thumpin car was strumming to a new beat, which consisted of rap, rock and even some country! Some stickers got stuck to the back window, to reveal "this is a dude's' car now" (nice try, ha ha! worked well with the pink pin striping!). He didn’t have much need for the date ejector, as he was too busy getting into mischief to worry about girls. And some how they managed to squish as many boys, snow gear and snow boards as possible in this lil mean machine and head for the Snowbird and golf clubs in the summer. Now Derek was famous for leaving the car lights on and draining the battery. He almost blew up the nice sounds system this way. And him and Blythe were famous for loosing the keys to poor ol' Lil Foot (we learned to make them by the dozen!).
At the time, Poppa Reid was driving a big ol’ Ford pick-up with a lift kit nick named Big Foot. So Blythe in the wisdom of a child, decided that must mean our new car was Lil' Foot! Little did she and Derek know, "Lil' Foot" would one day become their prize possession! When Poppa Reid handed over the keys to his precious 16 year old daughter, he also put a $400 sound system in it – which at the time was probably worth more than the car itself. So off Lil' Foot went on some new bump thumpin adventures! The next thing Blythe discovered was the “date eject button” – if you rolled the window down on the passenger side, the car door opened – so if she had a guy with her that she deemed a dork boy, she could just say “hey, will you roll that window down?” and as soon as the door latch un-hitched she could make a swift left turn and out the poor dork boy would go, ha ha! Later on we hooked her up with a Honda, also five speed manual, so she could head to college and Derek could take the reigns of the ol' car with the same birth year as his. Yes, he was quite thrilled (insert sarcasm).
Now the bump thumpin car was strumming to a new beat, which consisted of rap, rock and even some country! Some stickers got stuck to the back window, to reveal "this is a dude's' car now" (nice try, ha ha! worked well with the pink pin striping!). He didn’t have much need for the date ejector, as he was too busy getting into mischief to worry about girls. And some how they managed to squish as many boys, snow gear and snow boards as possible in this lil mean machine and head for the Snowbird and golf clubs in the summer. Now Derek was famous for leaving the car lights on and draining the battery. He almost blew up the nice sounds system this way. And him and Blythe were famous for loosing the keys to poor ol' Lil Foot (we learned to make them by the dozen!).
By now Lil’ Foot was growing weary and tired. Her clutch was starting to slip, her A/C was gone and to be quite honest, she smelt funny after you drove her for a while - ha ha ha. So we transferred Derek to a 1995 Jeep Cherokee (thanks Susan!) -- and with a little moola and a lot of elbow greese he was off and running once again. With a more "manly" ride now, he actually started to date! Of course Derek stripped Lil' Foot of her sound system and woofers. So I took pity on Lil' Foot and polished her off by driving her to work as long as she could go -- which wasn't long.
After spending some time as yard art we decided to donate her to Kars-4-Kids. They hauled her off today. While with us she commuted Poppa Reid to work, went to Disneyland, Jackson Hole, the cabin, Layton, Kearns, and quite a few trips to Mesquite. She helped mask Blythe's nose in the back corner of the car while her kid brother barfed all the way to the first 5-hour ride to Grandma's house... and she survived only one fender bender. Yep, it was a great ride!... Oh yes, and notice the little dings in the body? "Nobody" was responsible for those and "Nobody" knows how they got there... tee hee! Great memories -- we drove her for all she was worth! Her mileage as of today is 237,539. She went forever on a tank of gas, and kept her windows intact despite the shaking from those big ol' subwoofers! And we never replaced the clutch... AMAZING! R.I.P. Lil' Foot!!
After spending some time as yard art we decided to donate her to Kars-4-Kids. They hauled her off today. While with us she commuted Poppa Reid to work, went to Disneyland, Jackson Hole, the cabin, Layton, Kearns, and quite a few trips to Mesquite. She helped mask Blythe's nose in the back corner of the car while her kid brother barfed all the way to the first 5-hour ride to Grandma's house... and she survived only one fender bender. Yep, it was a great ride!... Oh yes, and notice the little dings in the body? "Nobody" was responsible for those and "Nobody" knows how they got there... tee hee! Great memories -- we drove her for all she was worth! Her mileage as of today is 237,539. She went forever on a tank of gas, and kept her windows intact despite the shaking from those big ol' subwoofers! And we never replaced the clutch... AMAZING! R.I.P. Lil' Foot!!
2 comments:
I love it. It is funny how attached we become to our cars. I cried last May when we traded in the car we bought when we first got married and brought the babies home from the hospital in. I can also relate to the stereo situations. I still have to make sure the green light is off when the kids are in the Tahoe. That means all the "woofers" are off and we won't be blowing any eardrums. My 31 year old boy hasn't grown out of that on yet.
Oh poor lil' foot! I am going to miss him and that wodnerful date ejector. How many people can say their cars had that feature!? Love this post!
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