My first car was a gold ‘79 Toyota Corolla; I got it while I was living in Greeley, not too long after I graduated from high school. It was a cool, exciting experience to have my very own car. I decided to name my car “Babe”, as in “I Got You Babe” (a song I really liked).
Since “Babe” was a used car there were some interesting quirks I had to face. For starters, the car was missing a gas cap, so I had to buy one from an auto shop; next, the passenger door had this annoying habit of swinging open whenever I would make a left turn. I actually got pretty good at keeping my left hand on the steering wheel while using my right hand to reach over and pull the door shut during my left turn! Quite a little exercise there!
“Babe” would occasionally break down on me, but for the most part she was a very reliable car! I didn’t have any problems driving “Babe” in the wintertime, as the heater always worked and the car didn’t get stuck in the snow. What a relief!
A few months later I went out of town with my mom, Jaimee and Jordan, while my dad and Josh stayed at home…with “Babe.” Cue the ominous music, because while I was gone something happened to “Babe”…
When my family and I returned from our trip I noticed there were car parts laid out on the lawn and in the driveway. The parts looked very familiar, belonging to my beloved “Babe” - what had happened?! Had there been an accident! No, nothing awful like that. My dad and Josh had decided to do some work on my car and got the crazy idea of turning the car into a convertible! “Babe” was now “ConvertiBabe!”
The roof and hatchback had been cut off, then Dad got the idea of sealing the doors shut (to solve the problem with the passenger door that would never stay closed). And this is what “Babe” looked like:
Jaimee takes a ride in "Babe/The ConvertiBabe/The Babemobile"
I was in shock, but I don’t remember being angry or upset with Dad and Josh, just surprised; Mom, on the other hand, was really ticked off! She reminded my dad that I would not be able to drive this car in the wintertime. D’oh!! Forgot about that, huh?! Well, Dad is not one to leave a job unfinished, so he painted my gold car black, added some cool pinstripes and then carpeted the back of the car. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the finished product.
I don’t know how the name “The Babemobile” came about, but someone must have mentioned it because that was what my car was called from then on. During the summer, after enjoying a lot of rides out on the street it was decided that the car should be sold, and so “Babe/The ConvertiBabe/The Babemobile” was sold. And that’s the story of my first car.
I have never heard that story or known about that car. That was awesome!
ReplyDeleteTime for me to add my two cents ... or maybe four cents ... :)
ReplyDeleteFirst, the "Babemobile" nickname came from our neighbor's kid (forget his name but he was only like 7 years old). When I was test driving the car after we cut the top off, he saw us driving and said "That's a real babemobile now!" And it stuck.
Second, you might not remember this, but we actually kept the car all the way through that first winter after we cut the top off. It was parked behind the basketball hoop and covered with a tarp for the winter (I think we shoved some bags of sand on top to keep the tarp from blowing away).
In the Spring when we took the tarp off to check for damage we learned that at least a handful of rodents (we assumed mice based on the droppings) had lived comfortably in it over the colder months. THAT is why we sold it, because none of us would drive it after that.
BUT the heater worked great even int he winter and I distinctly remember driving it int he rain and in the snow and loving every minute of it!
Thanks for not being mad that dad and I acted on our wild hair!