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Confessions of an Engineer’s Daughter
When I was little, I was a real “Daddy’s girl.” He went off to work each morning dressed in custom tailored suits and when I visited him at his office, not only was the building impressive, but I was greeted by his attractive secretary, who wore gold hoop earrings, so in my eyes, he was “important!” In real world terms, he was an advanced vehicle design engineer with Ford, and so I grew up in the shadow of the big blue oval, and developed an early affinity for “better ideas.”
Growing up in a “Ford family” meant there were vehicle perks that I enjoyed and took totally for granted. We didn’t get to keep the company lease cars for more than a year, so rather than wishing for new cars, my mother wished for continuity, sometimes leasing the same make, model and color for several years so that in shopping mall parking lots, it became easier to remember which one was “hers.”
On a trip to England with my Dad as a teen, we not only got to tour around the country in a car that he had designed and developed, but it was the very model that was used for the promotional photo shoot and we saw it blazoned on billboards from coast to coast. Our pride was dented, however, by the damage inflicted upon our vehicle by a woman who decided to overtake a double-decker bus on a highly hedged and winding road in Wales… It’s hard to feel good driving a brand new car that has sustained serious body panel damage…
Putting that experience aside, I did not get to feel the pain of driving an old or unattractive vehicle until I was a young adult. When the dashing Porsche 914 that I bought, second hand, in the spring, had to be taken off the road in the fall, I also had to give up those parts of my image that went with it. I loved its speed, its “cuteness,” its sassy color and dashing styling. Its removable roof made it an occasional convertible, and best of all, it was so low that I could enter and exit parking lots by driving right under lowered wooden gates. Yes, a lot of my 21 year old identity was wrapped up in that car, so when its replacement turned out to be a Buick Skylark that was close to as old as I was, painted in a sun mottled shade of pea green, I felt the humilliation of being suddenly being old and ugly, very acutely. Which cars have you owned that you cringe to recall? I think of the butter yellow Oldsmobile station wagon, unfondly known as “the banana boat,” and it’s successor, the powder blue Ford LTD station wagon which was too hideous to ever be given a name. Hmm, I wonder if my boyfriend at the time was sending me some not so subtle subliminal messages by finding me all of those unlovely cars? What cars have you had that you identified with most strongly? What is your “dream car?” If you are having dificulty deciding between several that are highly appealing, this free quiz will tell you what three car brands are most aligned with your own self-image and values. Click here to take the quiz.I was very pleased and surprised by my score. Without a doubt it was a huge upgrade from the “banana boat” and “the green gob,” that proceeded it. It even eased my loss of my young, oat sowing alterego, that dashing little Porsche 914.
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