Thursday, February 13, 2014

Love......Is It Really Only Reserved for Living Things?

So when I was little (about 6), I remember going to my Great Aunt Nang* and Great Uncle Frank's house in Glen Rock, New Jersey. Aunt Nang had made spaghetti and sauce for lunch, and I remember that it smelled delicious.  As I sat down to a lovely bowl of spaghetti, I said, "I LOVE spaghetti!!" Aunt Nang was swift in her response: "You love people; you like spaghetti".

Really?

Even at that young age, I recall thinking to myself, "Well, she can say what she wants but I really love spaghetti" and filing that life lesson away for future reflection. I have thought of it often, and have even parroted the thought to my own children (and some beleaguered friends) usually in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Certainly, Aunt Nang is rolling over in her grave today, as I can proclaim that I am in love.......with my 1988 Blue Mercedes Benz 560 SEL, torn leather interior and all! It is like a dream to drive, moving through the 405 traffic like a warm knife through cool butter. The roar and rumble of the V8 engine is mesmerizing. The enormous, make-out accommodating back seat is the stuff of pulpy fiction and secret thoughts. The power is breathtaking.

Let me acknowledge that I have seen too many Disney movies too many times. The events, thoughts, and feelings of today confirm this fact. This afternoon, I took the car to Huntington Beach and back. I suppose this is our first "road trip" (hopefully the first of many). I felt as if the car was enjoying the ride (the car - the inanimate car).


About half of the way back to Santa Monica, I started thinking about how I found the car, all alone and neglected in the back corner of someone's back yard, grass weeds growing up around the wheels, covered in the spooky dust of abandonment. I approached the car quietly, and slowly walked around the whole thing, pausing to peer through the windows, examine the roof, run my fingers along the hood, glance at the back license plate. It seemed as if the car was apologizing for not being the original paint color. The car seemed embarrassed and exposed - unsure if I would like it or reject it.

When I told the owner I wanted to test drive it, he had to move two trucks and a BMW out of the way and then he had to guide me as I drove the behemoth through a narrow pass between a boat and a jet ski, then a dune rider and a canopy, past another boat and through a fence. Honestly, I felt like I was rescuing the car more so than purchasing it.

The silver hood star was missing from the car, giving it a sad face. It reminded me of our Old English Sheepdog, Laughton, when we shaved his coat one summer. He looked embarrassed and forlorn. When I took the car to my Mercedes Master Mechanic, we agreed that the first thing he should do is replace the hood star. He had one on hand that he had just been waiting to use, and he was so happy to put it on. He actually drove the car over to my office before it was fully ready for delivery so I could see that the star was back on! I swear to you, the car now looked like he was smiling and happy.


Without the star, it looked like the car felt like it had something to prove. With the star, it had a quiet confidence....a presence.

In a further display of anthropomorphic behavior, I have decided that the car is a boy, and I am working on selecting his name. Friedrich and Franz are early front runners, although Loki is in the running as well. (My ML 320 is a girl named Veronica. I hope that she is not getting jealous.)

I have already taken the High Mileage Award form to WI Simonson Mercedes-Benz Dealership http://www.wisimonson.net/index.htm for verification (it has 171,486 miles) and gathered info for joining the local classic Benz group (the W126 subgroup, natch). Created my profile on  BenzWorld.org (http://www.benzworld.org/) all the while shaking my head at myself and muttering under my breath, "Why haven't you already joined this forum? Should have joined in 2002...." I have already stopped by Westside Mercedes to speak with Ken Spratford about reupholstering the front seats and doing some restoration work. (They are the BEST - http://www.westsidemercedes.com/ - and they work on more than just Mercedes. I saw a sweet Morgan, a jaw dropping EType Jag, and an unbelievably beautiful Corvette in addition to a gaggle of Mercs while I was there the other day.)


So this is my new pet...my new love. After I paid the seller and drove away, 'Mony, Mony' by Billy Idol was playing on the radio. Then, as that ended, 'Vehicle' by the Ides of March came on. I took that as a sign that this car was meant for me...had been waiting for me...and it would love me back.

"I'm your vehicle baby
I'll take you anywhere you wanna go.
I'm your vehicle woman
But I'm not sure you know
That I love ya
I need ya
I want ya,
Got to have you child,
Great God in heaven you know I love you."
Vehicle - Ides of March

 (Did I mention I have watched WAY TOO MANY Disney movies? Way too many times?)

Have you ever been in love with a car? Tell me about it......

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*Great Aunt Nang - Her real name was Agnes. My adorable father was her first nephew. When he was little, he couldn't pronounce Agnes, and it came out "Nang". She thought that was so amazingly delightful that she went by Nang for the rest of her days.