Over the weekend, the car my daughter drives (the one her Grandmother drove for a decade and the one that sat in a driveway for a year when Grandmom no longer had access to the keys and the one John drove for a year or so before buying his own), lost its muffler. Not completely – just rusted out and hanging by…well…hanging.
The car sounds like it has tin cans rattling around inside of the engine, amplified by a solid sound system. It’s really loud. And, yet, Natalie drove it around like that over the weekend. To a baby shower. To her boyfriend’s house. To the drive-through at Starbucks. Really?! The drive-through at Starbucks? The voice on the other end of the speaker couldn’t even hear her because her car was so loud. People stared. Giggled even. My daughter, who really couldn’t give a crap what anyone thinks, has character. And she is a character.
Old cars build character, and if you’ve already got it, they just reinforce it. Anyway, the next time you see (or hear) a young person driving down the street in a beat-up old car most likely handed down from somebody who loved them very much, don’t judge. Likely, they’re just working on character building and working their way through school.
Nancy Wiley writes. 