The Last One

I haven't posted since August?  Wow.  Not much going on, nothing exciting to tell.  Work, eat, sleep.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  

One milestone:

The Last Truman Baker car in our family is mine.  My uncle, Horace Tarkington, married Edna Baker, whose father, "Uncle Truman", owned a Chevrolet dealership in Searcy for decades.  By the time I was young, Truman was semi-retired and Horace was mostly running the show.  Horace, in turn, retired and left the business to his sons.

After many years and many acquisitions (Buick, Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, Mazda), the boys sold and bought the Lincoln dealership; they subsequently sold that and are all the way out of the new car business.

The last car we bought from Truman Baker in its old, original configuration, was a butane blue Chrysler Town and Country.  It was the last car Mother had; she drove it home and maybe a few more times.  Dad didn't like it (he likes it fine, he just doesn't like driving vans---he likes the hood out there in front). 

Mostly, it either stayed in the garage or I drove it (on all our trips to Florida).

When Mom was in the nursing home, I bought it from Dad.  It had 36,000 miles on it.

This weekend, it rolled 100,000.  I used to trade cars at least once a year.  Now, I've driven this one 4 years and plan to drive it until it dies.  At least another 100,000?

(a MINIVAN?  Yep.  I don't need to prove to anyone how cool I am.  It's comfortable, quiet, and can haul 9 friends to a football game or 3 people and 5 dogs comfortably to San Antonio.  Very versatile and convenient, easy in easy out (what's the deal with the modern sedans?  Why the squashed look?  We have somethng against glass suddenly?  I can't get in and out and I can't see out of the damn things--plus, the trunks are so oddly configured you can barely get a normal suitcase in and out, much less anything more substantial than a toaster), does what I need it to do, when I need it to do it--and while it doesn't have the towing power of an SUV, it gets twice the gas mileage of a Suburban, while having roughly the same interior space.  Plus, SUV vs. Minivan---they're both boxes on wheels.  If it makes you tougher to drive a truck chassis, that's fine, bully for you.  I'll take 24 mpg for about $1,000 a year, Alex.)