Perhaps it is a family curse, or perhaps it is rust.

    When I was a very small child in England, my parents had interesting transportation choices.  There were two motorcycles and a Morris Minor Traveller.  Commonly called a "woody". 

(Photo by Michele Hamer)

I do not remember exactly what model the motorcycles were.. There have been many over the years, but if you look at the photo, you can see that even at the age of 7, I had questions about this particular car.  I still do not know why they had this car.  Did they think it was novel? Was it a collector's item?  Was there a car shortage the year we moved to England?  Did somebody give it to them?  I don't know.  Honestly, if the answer mattered at all, I would ask.   The car in the picture is a 1964 model, and I'm sure ours was not much younger.  There is one difference between the car in the photo and the car we owned.  Our car was actually driven as a family car in England. 

    England is lovely. The climate is temperate. There are no sudden shifts to ice storms nor temperatures soaring to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  England is an island. A wonderful island with salty sea air.  Our car had a fair amount of rust, as did any car more than a year old.

     One morning, we drove the 19 miles to the military base in the fog. It was very dense fog in the early mornings and I often wonder how long it took my mom to get used to the fog there. How long did it take her to become comfortable driving on the left side of the road, driving in fog and finding her way around after living in Oklahoma, Texas, Nevada and Florida.  (Places not known for dense fog nor winding roads.)

     Anyway, so it was about 6 o'clock in the morning and just as we could see the security gate on the back side of the base, the car seemed to drop and come to a pretty sudden and noisy stop.  (I do not remember all of the exact speed limits, but I know that 55 mph seemed slow when I moved here.)  It was still pretty dark out as well as being extremely foggy, so we really had no idea what had happened.  Looking back, even in broad bright daylight, I'm not sure we would have guessed correctly.

   We got out of the car and took a look.  The front of the car looked just fine, so we apparently did not hit anything.  However, we all noticed the car was leaning at about the same time.  We looked toward the back and the rear of the car was actually sitting on the ground.  The rear axle, with the tires still attached was behind the car.  Now that I am older and have lived through many more ridiculous calamities than could possibly seen normal or average I wonder: Perhaps it is some sort of family curse that causes such ridiculous events to surround our family, or perhaps it was just rust.

    Of course, my brother and I thought it was cool.  To us, it was the same as pulling the axle off of our Hotwheels or Matchbox cars.  Mom was not clapping or cheering at all. 

    I'm not a little kid anymore.  I can only imagine being new to a foreign country, finding my way around in the fog on the side of the road I was told NEVER to drive on, trying to get to work on time and not get lost.  I can imagine having to call my boss or commanding officer to report that I would be late due to THAT situation.  Who would believe that BOTH wheels fell off of the car?

     Well, all of that salty sea air meant that we went through several cars while we were there. The car immediately following the "woody" was a MGBGT..  Google that.  It certainly seems like a logical vehicle choice for a family of four, right?  Like I said before, I have no idea what made my parents chose a car.  I don't ask about any of them.  The cars have all had their own oddities.  The last car my mom owned before she moved back to the US was a 1988 Limited Edition Wimbledon Mini... My dad was 6'2" and I was 5'7".  Somehow, I actually fit comfortably in the back seat.  That car was like the Tardis and had wheels the same size as our lawn mower, but it also got 52 miles per gallon of gas.. That is pretty impressive.  They do not make Mini's like that in this country.  There are extra pesky safety features that weight the car down and change the fuel economy.  Sigh...   Maybe that car made sense... Ugh, no... cause careening around the corners at 80+ mph in something that squished easier than a soda can does not make sense to me.  I'm sure there was a reason. Maybe someday I will ask about the Carmen Ghia, MGBGT, Woody, Mini and many others.  There has to be a story there.