ODE TO "OLD DOLLAR"

My Trusty 2010 Ford Escape

I just put what probably will be the last set of tires on my trusty 2010 Ford Escape. I had a lot of cars, way to many. Every nameplate you can think of. I never drove a car more than 40,000 miles when I was in business. Always a new car or image beckoned. 

This one has stuck though. Now I have over 135,000 miles on “old dollar.” I bought it in the desert and roamed almost everywhere since then. The high desert of Eastern Oregon, Canada, the vast Sonoran, across the country a couple of times (west to east and back again), big cities up North and now the gentle roads of the South who reveal themselves so slowly.

I thought about a new car from time to time, not because of ego, like in the past, but because of concern about dependability. Still “old dollar” continues to move down the road flawlessly. More important it fits in everywhere. It still looks proud enough to take uptown, but not too gaudy for the small towns and rural South. Big splashes don’t work here. 

A growing fondness for “old dollar” has filled my driving experiences. Like me, there is the occasional part that doesn’t work quite as well as in the past. There is always some maintenance to do. There is a pride though, one difficult to understand completely. 

Maybe it's that I learned the value of money after all these years. Or maybe the feeling that keeping it running and working does a small part for the environment. Using something instead of discarding it for the junk yard, only to be replaced by a car requiring new resources to build. Maybe it’s wanting to feel more a part of the whole, not wanting the separation a fancy car can sometimes engender. A quiet satisfaction knowing you own a car versus a book of payment vouchers has its own rewards.

More than that, we just have shared too many adventures together to say goodbye. So I continue to drive “old dollar” and look at it every night thanking it for the years. There are roads we still have to travel. 

David Young