Farewell Shenaqua!

To most people, I bet this will sound totally corny. But, here goes. Our wacky family has been in the habit of naming and assigning gender to our cars. Why? I have no idea. Maybe it's because we consider the car a member of the family; maybe because we get a little too emotionally attached to inanimate objects; maybe because we are a little crazy; maybe all of the above.

When we first bought our giant, red minivan many years ago, I began calling it "Big Red" after the red Texas soda. Big Red was definitely a guy. He hauled us around Albany for ten years and had three transmissions (all under warranty, I might add). We ate entire meals in that van as I trucked my girls from one softball game, soccer game, gynastics class or dance class to another.

Then came the gold Toyota, known as Goldie. She was definitely a woman. And not just a woman, but a very classy woman. We still own Goldie but now she has made the transition from Mom's car to Brittany's car. She is a GREAT car and has never given us any trouble. Oh, the odd flat tire now and then, but mechanically she's got it going on. Recently, my oldest daughter needed a car to get around town now that she lives off her college campus. Since Shenaqua is really getting up there, we decided Britt should take Goldie and I would drive Shenaqua until I could find another car for myself.

Our Shenaqua! What can I say about her? She was purchased for Brittany to drive when she got her driver's license for approximately $3000 and she had about 91,000 miles on her. She is a 1998 Mercury Tracer and when we saw her, my husband thought she had a great body. We made sure that she was safe, so she became my daughter's first car. My youngest daughter and I christened her Shenaqua because at the time Queen Latifah was in a movie that my girls liked. In the movie, there was another character name Shaneequah. Bridget and I decided (because it is rumoured that Bridget and I share one brain between us) that since the car was an aqua color, "Shenaqua" should be the car's name and it stuck.

Four and a half years since we first got her, Shenaqua has reached the end of her life. She has 117,000 miles on her, a damaged catalytic converter, her transmission is shot and she's been in several fender benders. It's time for her to go to that Big Junk Yard in the Sky. Today we say goodbye to Shenaqua but we will always remember the good times. Yes, and some of those good times Britt could tell you, but I don't really want to know about...

Goodbye Shenaqua! We'll always remember you, but not miss you too much because of that way you had of slipping out of drive when I most needed you to go forward....

B-bye!