chitty-chitty bang-bang...

I had this car in college, actually it was my parent's car. It was a '79 Chevy Suburban. You know, from back in the day when they made cars out of steel instead of Fiberglas. They had brought it brand-new, nearly top of the line of it's day... but when I was growing up it became the oldest car in the cal-de-sac year after year after year. Not only so, but "Big Bertha" (as she was known) also chugged her fair share of gasoline on a weekly basis as well... taking us from point to point and then on family vacations. Sure, she would experience occasional break-downs and would need the assistance of the master mechanic, ...nothing a few hundred or thousand of dollars wouldn't fix. Eventually as she was nearing her last leg, or would that be tire? oh, I don't know. All I know is that she began to sputter and clank to such an extend that Bertha came to be known as "Chitty-chitty Bang-bang." And boy was she the ride of all rides at that time! Clank, pop, chug, creek, Boing! Back in the day (I can say that now, because she's no longer in existence and it was oh seven years ago when I would still be driving her around), but back in the day before too many of her clanks appeared, when I would take her up to school with me, many a guy would ask me if she was for sale... and would proceed to tell me the 'plans' they had for her... Complete with the welding off the top and making her into a convertible... jacking up her frame and sticking BIG tires on her... And I would always tell my dad that people were actually offering me money for her, and he would say to tell them that Bertha had just been in the family too long and still had many many more years of use left for us in her. I had always envisioned her as a planter in the front yard growing grass on her hood and top and actually what became of dear-dear Bertha was something just short of that. Just before her departure (that's what I'm calling it, I mean, afterall, my dad gave her to the Kidney Foundation... more on that later...), she spent many months on the side of the house in which a rich deposit of moss and mold grew on her insides. Apparently my dad when out to scrub her down before the tow truck came and hauled her off to car la-la-land. Sweet dreams good ol' Bertha... my dear Chitty-chitty Bang-bang.