I got no car and it’s breaking my heart

The Beatles -- Drive My Car -- 1965



No, not me. The Princess.

Her car is dead. Fang. That's his name. Fang.

DEAD.

The Princess luuuuuvs her some Fang. Aside from his color, Fang is her dream car. Her very first car. As a matter of fact, the Princess had Fang before she had a license.

Thanks to the HM.


As we have established, I grew up in relative poverty. Times with no electricity, sometimes no heat, often no money for anything " extra". I was pregnant at 17, a mother by 18. My daughter grew up in a better situation than me, thanks to the HM, but financially, there was never any cushion. We worked for every penny and squeezed them hard.

By the time the Princess was a teenager, she was attending a very prestigious college preparatory high school. A BIG MONEY school. On a financial scholarship because of her grades and work ethic. There was an ENORMOUS financial disparity between the Princess and the majority of her classmates. Mostly, she was ignorant of the differences, whether by choice or by virtue of being busy and challenged by the curriculum. She never seemed to care.

She also never cared much about getting her driver's license. The school provided a bus. She had a part-time job in a video store very close to our house. There wasn't much need to drive. She did manage to get a learner's permit, but never had any need to go much further than that.

The Princess had always loved Volkswagen Beetles. Many people in our family had owned the original versions in the 60's and 70's, so our photographic history was peppered with shots of Irish relatives beaming inside German cars.

From the times she was little, something about their round, cheerful, sweet nature appealed to the Princess. When she was 15, Volkswagen announced that they were releasing the New Beetle. The Princess followed the evolution with great interest. She had little New Beetle pictures in her room. She daydreamed about owning one when she was older and had enough money to buy a car. She knew she wanted one in red.





As she approached her senior year of high school, the HM began to talk to me about wishing that she could get the Princess a car. About how she often felt she had failed me in my childhood by not having enough to provide for any luxuries. About how she wanted it to be different for her only grandchild. About that same time, the HM and I were driving on a main thoroughfare near our house and spotted a used New Beetle in a car lot. For sale. It was white.






We never spoke a word about it. We both knew there was simply no way to afford it, no matter the cost.

One week later, I was sitting at work and my phone rang. It was the HM. She blithely informed me that she had taken herself to the bank, secured a loan and bought the little white Beetle for the Princess. I was stunned. I tried to argue with her, and she adamantly stated " I was never able to do this for you. I did it for her because I wanted to. Let me be happy about it".

We never told the Princess. We parked her car in our neighbor's garage. I cleaned and detailed it. The HM made a giant bow for the top. We picked a Friday afternoon to surprise her. Several family members came over. We made up an excuse to send the Princess inside, pulled the car into the driveway, attached the bow to the top, readied the camera and called her out.

Her face when she opened the front door was priceless. She was beyond shocked. Giddy with excitement. Disbelieving. I snapped a picture of her sitting in the front seat of her new car. It is still one of my all-time favorites to this day. She is beaming with joy, happiness and pride.

She got her license that summer.

Since that time, she and Fang have had a mutual love relationship. She simply adores that car. She often remarks that there are not many people who have the car of their dreams given to them before they ever have a license. Fang has been a great little car. He is great on gas mileage, has needed the bare minimum in repairs and is easy to care for. He has provided her with freedom. He leveled the playing field for her during her final year of high school.......a bit. He may not have been a Mercedes or Audi like so many of her classmates, but he was hers and she was terribly proud to drive him to that campus every day.

In college, he allowed her to make money babysitting for the local families in her community. She drove all over Westchester County in Fang.

Now that she is living back in Connecticut, he faithfully ferries her to work everyday. He often takes her on trips to Long Island to see Lumpkin. He has helped move belongings from home to apartment. He has taken her on day trips to see what our little state has to offer. When she is lonely, he drives her home to her family.

He has been everything a new owner would hope for.

Then, suddenly, yesterday.......he died. He simply would not start. No matter what we tried. We had to have him towed to our local mechanic as the Princess and I followed behind the tow truck. The Princess was very subdued and admitted that it was sad for her to witness Fang's downfall. I assured her, hoping against my own fading hopes, that he would be fine. It was probably something simple to fix, I told her.

The reality is, Fang is 10 years old already. Although he only has 53 thousand miles on his engine, age begins to speed the deterioration process. He is a machine, and machines wear out over time.


So today we wait. For the news. I am hoping, for the Princess' sake, it's good news and Fang will be road worthy with a few twists of a wrench and some new parts. I think if the news is bad, the Princess will truly be heartbroken. Although he is only a car, Fang has been so much more to her over these past 6 years.

Plus.......................................................





WE ARE ALL FRICKIN' BROKE!!!!!!!



Help us out, oh Juju god of German engineering. Hear our desperate pleas and return Fang to a state of equilibrium.

And make it cheap.


TYVM.