After 27 years and 600,000 miles, the time has finally come to put Brown Sugar out to pasture. Rachel and I finally pulled the trigger on a new car, and Saturday we purchased a 2007 Jeep Compass. I'd like to say a few words about the Brown Ford F-250 that has been a part of my life since the day I was born.
Brown Sugar, you've been there my whole life. My dad brought you home the day before I was born. I remember the good times......sitting in a lawn chair in the parking lot at Wilsonville High School, the yearly christmas tree hunts when you triumphantly brought home the symbol of the season, you helping me through the tough times after I totalled the Bronco, your durability and no matter how much you whined and complained, you always started....eventually.
I remember the bad times. The time your rear view mirror just came off the windshield in my hand, dying on Highway 34, running out of gas despite the gas gauge showing there's still juice in the tank on numerous occasions, the overwhelming gasoline smell you developed over the past few months, your strange insistence that third gear is not cool. I know you loved me, but you had a strange way of showing it.
So Thursday night, I will be taking you for one last ride up I-5 back to dad's house, where you will inevitably sit in the driveway and continue to rust. The hole in your floor will get bigger, the moss in the back window will continue to flourish. We'll still take you on christmas tree hunts if you'll let us, but your daily drives are a thing of the past.
Anyone who wants to join in the funeral train from Corvallis to Tigard is welcome to follow along in a silent drive up I-5 on Thursday night. As a show of respect to Brown Sugar, we ask that you disable your right headlight and drive with "one eye open." It's the only way Brown Sugar would want it.
No comments:
Post a Comment