Saying Good-bye

We keep our cars so long they become like a family member. We grow attached to them. Today we are saying farewell to our beloved 1991 Ford Taurus station wagon. It still runs, but the transmission is slipping badly and the air conditioner went out, which was why we bought her younger version this year. A 2001 Taurus station wagon. The old gray mare ain't what she used to be but we still had trouble parting from her. She hauled around our family for 10 good years and is now heading to the scrap yard with a whopping 200,000 miles on her engine. We let this old gal sit in the yard for a few months while we decided what to do with her. Maybe Melanie and Casi would want her ? Melanie is attached to the car as we are. It would only take a couple thousand dollars to have her up and running good as new. Emery maintains the cars so well, everything else is in perfect running order and the engine is still brand spanking new looking. There are the paint issues though. It looks as if the car has leprosy. Ford did not get the paint right on the Taurus wagons that year.

We have decided today is the day to say good-bye to this old faithful friend. She carried us to feis' and many Oireachtas across the country, not to mention all the trips to church and to dance lessons. We carried home trees and plants, hay and feed for the animals and food for the family. We even hauled goats in the back. That car always got us where we needed to be.

And the girls loved that it had a third seat, which was wonderful for a couple of pesky little boys that seemed to enjoy poking each other and anyone else near them.

We had a 1985 Tempo that we got rid of in 2004. It had 200,000 miles on it too. That car was so much a part of the family history that we actually cried when they hauled it off. We got that almost new so Melanie had a car seat in it and Melissa had a booster chair in that car and later, Melissa took that same car as her own to college with her and drove it home many a weekend from Austin. That is owning a car for a very long time. To go from car seats to college with the same car ! As you might guess, we are not into new cars. We would rather fix the ones we have. A serious way of keeping them out of the junk yard, being "green" of sorts by not demanding to have a new car all the time. Our new Ford will hold us until we are ready for a Smart Car or some other auto that has serious fuel economy in mind.

Just as a side note, when the Tempo finally did die, we purchased one just like it, same color etc but newer for Melissa and she is still driving that one today. Poor girl has had the same kind of car since she was 5 years old, notably she does drive their other car mostly though.

Our second car now, you guessed it, a Tempo...1993 with only 135,000 miles on it so it has a long way to go yet. Emery drives that one to work. 6 miles each day total, so I would think at 30 miles a week, the car should last many more years.