This Old Ride

My first thought on seeing this car in the Rite Aid parking lot was, "Ooh, let me hurry up and snap a picture of this before the owner comes back."

I don't have anything against old cars and I don't believe everyone needs to have a spanking new car. After all, my own car is ten years old, paid for, and it still runs pretty well. The doors may have a whole lot of scratches on them, but whatever. I would draw the line at having to drive around with contraptions holding my ride together.

As I pulled out my camera, I realized it could get a little uncomfortable trying to explain to the owner exactly why I was taking a picture.

"Dude, um, yeah, I was just so fascinated by the fact that the front of your car is being held up by a...well, whatever that thingamajig is."

I'm so sexist. I'm assuming it's a guy's car. But I just don't know how many ladies are going to roll around with that thing on the front of their car.

The homeless woman outside the Rite Aid was watching me. I started envisioning her yelling, "OOH, I'm telling! You're taking pictures of someone's car!"

And then the owner, probably some Silver Lake/Los Feliz hipster in an anti-Bush shirt would rush from the Rite Aid and lecture me on how it's not cool to photograph other people's cars.

So, with my picture surreptitiously snapped, I quickly went through the sliding doors and into the Rite Aid. They were out of the sunblock I was looking for, so less than two minutes later, I walked out of the store.

The car was gone.

The homeless lady said, "Someone stole your car."

She thought it was my car since I was taking pictures of it. I didn't quite understand this because wouldn't she have seen the same person getting in and out of the car? I wished I'd seen the owner myself, wished I'd seen the person who is proudly driving around in this city of image and status with a whatever it is on the front of their ride.

Then again, maybe the owner of this car is in the process of rehabbing it. Maybe when I see this car again, it'll be tricked out with cherry red paint, lightning bolts across the hood, and lots of chrome to reflect the LA sun. It'll have a flat screen TV in the roof so the birds can watch the National Geographic channel.

It'll probably look so pretty that I'll try to snap a picture, never even realizing it's the same car.

It'll be like those old Jenny Jones shows where the unattractive girl from high school has gut rehabbed herself into a beautiful, anatomically perfect, cellulite-free woman and then confronts the person who mercilessly teased her.

The car will be saying, "How ya like me now!"

Comments

Jameil said…
no honey. the next place you'll see that car is the junkyard. lmao @ somebody stole your car. i would've said, "What did they look like?"
none said…
I used to have green bug that looked worse. I was really proud of it.

That thing up front is a tow bar so it can be pulled by anything with a trailer hitch.

That bug is worth about 3 grand. People love to restore them like you said.

There is something interesting at attractive about beat to hell old cars.
Anonymous said…
Yeah, I always think they must have real personality, and the relationhip is one that cannot be parted with.

On the dumpy girl-from-high-school thing: I just caught a flashback of an oldie but goodie with Stockard Channing in the lead, as the dumpy girl. Man, I can remember watching that, whatever it was called, on what was p r o b a b l y an ABC After School Special.

Thanks for the ride, Liz.
Sundry said…
Ha... hammer, good to know my instincts were right. I was thinking it looked like it was ready to be towed by anyone anywhere. Wish I'd thought of that with a couple of my old cars!
The last time I photographed someone's car in a parking lot was a Mercedes with the license tag "Slumlrd" which someone had backed into, hard. Probably his tenant. (It's on my photo blog.)

The guy's secretary saw me and ran out of his office screaming, "You don't have the right to do that, bitch."

I think she was mostly offended by the fact that I couldn't stop laughing while shooting the picture.
West said…
You know I can't talk smack about snappin' pix of other folks' rides.
Anonymous said…
i always take pictures of people cars, i once saw a Z4(dream car) across the street took a picture of it, the owner who was observing this sitting behind me at street cafeteria, asks me "you like my car, here take the keys sit in it, and i will take a photo of you in it with your camera" i was so happy! it was awesome put the top down got some great photos, and i was able to sit in my dream car. :)
Liz Dwyer said…
Hey Everyone, I'm so sorry to take forever to reply to your comments. This is an 80-90 hour work week for me this week (I'm not kidding) so bear with me!

Jameil,
That would have been a great question to ask! If only I thought of that stuff in the moment. I always feel like I never do.

Hammer,
A tow bar! See, I knew someone out here in the blogosphere had to know what that thing was! I'll bet someone is restoring it. The old ones are so much cuter than the new ones.

Kim,
Older cars do have more personality. I can't imagine someone wanting to restore an Accord in 25 years. And you know, I don't think I ever saw not one ABC after school special. TV viewing was VERY limited in my parent's house.

Sundry,
They are getting ready to tow it to the rehab shop! :)

HISF,
I am now on the floor laughing over the thought of this. I have to find the time to check out the photo blog so I can see it. And hey, it's her opinion that you're a bitch, but at least you aren't a slumlord getting ready to burn in hell.

West,
Oh hell no! No...say it's not true! Everybody, go click on that link and check out that picture. Straight up insanity, LOL!

Baseem,
Welcome and thanks for sharing your story. Wow, that's really nice that someone let you sit in their car like that and take the photo. Sometimes people surprise us in the nicest ways!
Miz JJ said…
Why would somebody steal *that* car? Hilarious.
Liz Dwyer said…
Miz JJ,
Well in his comment, Hammer says it's worth $3K. So maybe someone's going to steal it and try to do something with it??? LOL!

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