Well… we’re back from Cabo and I have a zillion videos to blog about but I have to stop first and blog about a passing in our family. She had a good long life but it was just her time. The Grocery Go-Getter (AKA ’86 Dodge Caravan) has FINALLY met it’s junkyard fate.
Why am I writing about a mini-van you ask? Well… you need to know the history of this car. But actually… let’s start before that so you have a little bit of a background. I am the oldest child in our family (grew up in a suburb of Denver) and when I turned 16 and got my license (actually hold on… that didn’t happen till I was 17 because of my “grades”), my parents bought me a new car. Well it was new if you call a brown 1981 Plymouth Reliant K w/no working heater, a back wheel that wanted to fall off all the time, and only an AM radio a new car.) This thing broke down literally every week. One time I was driving in the rain and one of the windshield wipers flew off as they were going. I truly believe that my Dad bought this car so he could FIX IT all the time. It was his little project. But I blame it for my need to come to a warm state (no heater in a Colorado winter… are you kidding me??). Anyway, I know this is true about my Dad because when my sister got her license (I think when she was 16.. she has a PhD in Chemistry now… you get the idea) my Dad bought her almost the exact same car. And of course the same thing happened.
The point is, my family has a history of buying seriously used cars and running them into the ground so my Dad could “fix them”. I believe the van had replaced our Impala Stationwagon that had like 180,000 miles on it or something. When we got the Caravan it was really hip (I was in 7th grade) but in high school it became known as “the Grocery Go-Getter” and the car we would use when we had to cram in a lot of people to go to some party in Boulder.
After all the birds flew the nest, the GGG (as it will be affectionately abbreviated for the rest of this post) seemed without a mission with no more kids to haul around. So instead it got used for hauling stuff, but mostly it acted as a speedbump. My parents parked it on the corner so those “crazy neighborhood teenagers” wouldn’t be able to speed around it. The thing got so little use that it rarely even ran and was dangerous to drive. The last time I drove it I thought the steering wheel was going to fall off.
A few years ago, Alex’s Dad & Step Mom came out to visit and we flew to Denver so they could visit my parents and the Rocky Mountains. My Dad said he was going to pick us up in the GGG and I argued with him saying that it was going to break down on the way to the airport. He assured me it wouldn’t. Sure enough as soon as we landed I had a message saying to rent a car, they were stalled on the side of I-70.
So that’s when it REALLY became a permanent speedbump as you can see in this image from Google Earth:
Finally, Someone (one of those “crazy neighborhood teenagers” I’m sure) probably got sick of having to swerve around the GGG all the time and decided to punch out the back window. I guess that was the signal to my parents that is was finally time. It was time to let go of the GGG. So I received these photos today and this Obituary written by my Dad:
“It’s a sad day when you lose an old friend, especially one that has been as loyal and trustworthy and such a big part of the family as this one but…
for a hundred bucks you can say good-bye to the grocery-go-getter, aka tree puller, aka child school and sport transporter, etc. (see photos)
we’ll miss her but I don’t think the neighbors will. Julie, do you know someone at GoogleEarth who can redo our neighborhood satelite photo?
Dad”
My (more sentimental) Mom wrote:
“Oh my goodness, could I possibly be getting emotional? Honestly, I feel the tears welling up
