Driving my Mazda B2300 pickup truck by myself home from the dealership really made me feel grown up. I had just bought a truck. I had finally made it. I had to pay for everything myself. I had to pay for my driver’s training, basically learning to drive by myself because my parents were afraid to teach me.
It took two long summers of working at the Mark Cresse School of Baseball in over a hundred-degree heat at times, sitting in the batting cage, feeding the pitching machine for hours on end. It was hustling to get a job when I moved to Salinas where I had to ride the bus to after-college classes and baseball and close the restaurant at night to make enough money to save for a down payment.
My truck may not have had power steering and sported a teal color that I was not initially crazy about, but it only had about 30,000 miles on it. It got great gas mileage and best of all, it was mine.
I couldn’t wait to drive my new truck everywhere. Indeed I did, I traveled all over Northern California, back to Southern California, lived in San Diego, and eventually moved to Mammoth Lakes, where I bought an AWD Honda CRV due to the insane winter conditions parking the old girl at my mother’s house for safekeeping.
There she sat for about four years when the CRV took a dive and I needed a car because I was broke from having kids! Who came to the rescue, my old gal. I put a new battery and solenoid in her and she started right up. It was like she knew I would be back. Eventually, I had to trade her in for a more practical family car, but it was a tough day. I wish I would not have given up on her in retrospect.
That was the first time I really felt like an adult. Thanks for reading Bunchiesblog! Check out some of my other recent articles if you have a moment!
What are your thoughts on this?