saundra

saundra...
she was my first car...
she was brand new...
my parents wanted my sister and i to have 'decent' vehicles for when we left home for college. i received mine when i was 17 years old...
it was a 1990 pontiac sunbird LE in charcoal grey...
5-speed manual transmission
sunroof
am/fm cassette
that's all i remember
that's all that mattered LOL
at the time my parents bought me the car, i didn't know how to drive a manual transmission... my sister attempted to teach me... *ATTEMPTED* she took me out to te parking lot at devonshire beach and i could not, for the life of me, get the car INTO first gear, nevermind OUT of first gear into second gear... i think everyone in the car got a severe case of whiplash... (sorry T) the following week my pops was on his days off and he took me out to the same spot my sister attempted to teach me. he got out of the car and said "ok, kid... drive" and left me to my own devices. i learned to do it in 5 minutes!!! he kept cheering and dancing in the parking lot every time i managed to get it out of first and FINALLY into second gear... he then got back into the car and told me to drive into town... PANIC!! well, i made it without incident, and still had to get comfortable with hills and such, but i was a quick study and it wasn't long before i was taking corners on two wheels, playing cat and mouse with other classmates and uhmmm... 4x4ing with her in the sand pits and getting her stuck high-center... heh... she was spitting out sand for years later... sorry saundra... but it was fun, wasn't it??
my parents used to use her as leverage against me... punishment. they would "ground" me from my car whenever they felt i should be punished for being late for curfew or heh, when i got my first speeding ticket... or if i looked at my mum sideways or burped w/o asking permission or breathed incorrectly... ha!
she was toilet papered during NHL playoffs... had cartoon characters drawn on her dirt and dust... she had her muffler decorated with cans and had champagne spilled in her trunk...
saundra saw me through a lot of different times... she was a part of my first car accident (i rear ended a classmate after we all had to harshly brake for kids jay-walking across the street)... she attended college and university with me... she hauled me and my friends around to parties and crazy/random drives into the mountains and across the prairies...
in 1998 when i was preparing to move to california saundra met her painful and sad fate... i was on memorial drive during rush-hour traffic, sitting about 20th back from the red light... i heard the squeal of tires behind me -- i knew it was inevitable... somehow, during the split seconds before impact i managed to crank my wheel all the way to my left directly into the curb to avoid hitting the person in front of me and checked to see if my car was in neutral... i put both feet on my brake and braced myself... i looked into the rear-view mirror and remember seeing the "GMC" logo as it rammed itself into my trunk... the impact was harsh, but i was prepared for it so when i managed to get myself out of my car (the seat broken and seatbelt locked, i wasn't suffering any major injuries... mostly shock... my poor car... saundra was hurt... badly... her trunk was now a part of the back seat... it was pushed in at least one foot... i managed to drive her home afterward. probably the smartest thing i did. i could have been terrified to ever drive again, given the impact and the damage the other vehicles sustained... i took her into autobody shops where they just laughed at me and wrote out that my vehicle was recommended to be written off...
WHAT?
retire saundra??? you've got me joking???
my poor baby girl...
i watched as the tow-truck came to take her away that september morning... she looked battered, bruised, worn and just plain tired... i remember crying as i was emptying my things from her the night before... i know it sounds stupid and sentimental, but i really did love her...
she is now, i like to think, a part of some avant garde industrial metal sculpture somewhere... i like to think she was rescued by some scrap-metal artist and is now living as a part of something more beautiful than what she left me...
*smooches*