My First Car

1996 Cadillac DeVille, dark forest green, which my father bought from my grandfather. I was only a bystander for the transaction. I didn't need a car. I didn't have anywhere to go. I can't name a single place I went in that car before I left for college.

It handled like a boat. I sat low in the driver's seat, and when I stepped on the gas all eight cylinders would kick in and the car's prow would pitch up, and halfway down the entrance ramp I would already be at freeway speed. Later, my wife said she liked driving that car. She imagined people in other cars watching her accelerate and saying, "Whoa, that old geezer can really beat it."

It had an aftermarket CD changer, installed in the trunk. It could hold five CDs. But those five were all you got. On a long trip, you had to plan ahead. And if you had too much luggage, you had to unload something to change the discs.

The driver's window stopped working. To drop off mail or use the ATM or go through a drive thru I had to lean my seat way back and roll down the rear window. I didn't know if I could do that when going through customs into Canada. By some miracle, the window worked that time. Then it wouldn't go back up. I drove through a summer thunderstorm before I got it closed again.

Eventually the brake lines rusted through. It takes good brakes to stop a Cadillac. So I parked at a trailhead, got my bike off the rack on the trunk, and rode home.