OK, just so there is no misunderstanding here let me make a point up
front. My automotive experience started in the days of crank-down windows and
manually adjusted mirrors. Cars I routinely drove might have had A/C (likely
didn’t work), and if domestic, power steering and power brakes. Really not much
else. My trucks? Scratch the A/C off the list; it would have had three pedals,
a wheel, a turn signal stalk, a shift lever and two knobs (lights and wipers).
If it was real upscale, it might have had an AM radio and floor mats too!
No, I’m not an antique of a human being. My transportation pursuits
didn’t start in the primordial ooze of the auto industry. But it did start with
whatever equipment I could afford at that time, so as a young driver I was
pretty much relegated to 8-12 year old vehicles; vehicles that predated the
more recent bells and whistles of that time.
By then power windows, power mirrors, power seats and AM/FM cassettes were
often ordered on most American cars. But cash-strapped as I was I didn’t have
access to these indulgences. Quite frankly I didn’t really desire them. I had
no perception of a need they could satisfy, so the options didn’t mean anything
to me.
Memory lane? Sort of, but with a point. As has usually been the case in
my career my current issued work vehicle is newer than the wheels I drive
personally. This time around the org managed to produce a lower mile Chevy that
worked just fine, a little sedan that had been turned in by another department.
Air, tilt, cruise AM/FM/CD; things that are now common on the most basic of
cars.
Winter is finally sagging into the lower Midwest, and with its coming, frost
on the windshield and frozen puddles in the street are commonplace. Just the
other day I happened to be in-route to another location before the sun had peeked
over the hill to do any of its fine work stirring up molecules and building heat.
At some point in that drive I went across an ice-patch, and in this case it was
on a mild hill, so the tires slipped a little. No surprises - saw it coming.
The car apparently didn’t assume that I could distinguish what had
happened though. An amber warning light lit up on the dash, flashed and soon
after a message scrolls across the instrument cluster proclaiming “slick
pavement”. Hmmmm. Really? I had assumed the slight engine-flair and tug on the
steering wheel was due to a mechanical failure or maybe a low tire… It couldn’t
possibly have anything to do with it being 25 degrees out and the fact I was
crossing a shiny spot on the pavement at that time.
Maybe I shouldn’t chide whoever engineered this thing. Maybe there are really
people out there who don’t understand what freezing temperatures, shiny
pavement, a flaring engine and a tug at the wheel means. But If these people
are driving around here this winter, they need to do us all a favor; either
move to Arizona or go home immediately and put their cars in the garage. They
can bring them back out in April when they will endanger us all less.
After I parked the work car that evening I jumped into my low mile 18
year old beater VW Golf and threaded my way home. It’s ugly, but the price was
right, it runs well and doesn’t have any rust. I only drive 7or so miles to
work, so it meets my needs. Did I mention it has manual crank-down windows and
manual mirrors. Oh, and it does have a power sunroof. I appreciated that
feature this last summer because the A/C doesn’t work.
©
2015 D.W. Williams
