I’ve never been a car person. I didn’t own a car from about 20 to 31. And the cars since have been practical, pragmatic, and cheap.
In December I was thinking it might be time to get a hybrid, or maybe even an electric if I could find something affordable, so I started thinking about cars and researching cars.
One in particular caught my attention, but I didn’t take it seriously because I mostly liked it for its color. And it wasn’t hybrid.
As I dug deeper I learned that it scored relatively well on different car evaluation sites, and there was a hybrid version.
I procrastinated. There weren’t many of the hybrids of that model in the US, and people kept saying car prices were inflated due to supply chain issues. A few times a week I’d look at different car possibilities in the area, different models, different rankings.
But I kept coming back to that blue car. Something about it struck a spark of joy. I was now noticing the model on the streets, and sometimes I’d see one that particular shade of blue, and I’d smile a little.
This week I decided I’d take the next step and test drive the car. I told Jennifer my plans for Saturday, and as we talked I realized I had been looking at the wrong car lot online. The car lot I liked, the one where we bought our last two cars, was not the one I’d set as “my” location on the website. When I switched locations there it was. The car I’d been thinking about. Hmmm, maybe it was time to buy a car.
Saturday morning, as I was in that state between dream and wakefulness (hypnopompia), I recalled a childhood memory.
From my earliest memories until I was about five or six, my father owned a Datsun convertible. A blue Datsun convertible.
I did some internet sleuthing, and I’m pretty sure he owned the same model pictured here. This is a 1967 Datsun SRL 311 Sport 2000 Convertible.
Is that why the bright blue car I was shopping for brought me a spark of joy?
I loved riding in that Datsun convertible. There wasn’t really a back seat, but the child version of me could easily squeeze in the narrow space between the tucked away fabric of the convertible top, and the backs of the front seats. What I remember most is putting the top down on a summer day and driving out to Lake Meredith (just north of Amarillo, Texas) with a picnic lunch.
So, almost certainly influenced by gleaming childhood memories, I bought a car yesterday.
Not a sexy convertible, and not quite the powder blue of my childhood memory, but a bright blue. It’s also much more SUV-y than I imagined I’d ever own. I wanted something I could load up for the beach, something that’d carry plants and soil from the nursery, and something I could pack up for weekend trips around Florida. It’s a 2018 Hyundai Kona. Not a hybrid, and not electric, but for me it’s the right car for right now.
(100 Days of Blogging: Post 084 of 100)