Almost a movie star...

I had a dream come true a couple of weeks ago; but let me back up about 45 years ago, back when I was 8 years old.

I was a real tom-boy with a pixie haircut and I usually had bruises and scrapes on every appendage. I could jump rope and pogo-stick circles around all the girls in our neighborhood.

In our town there was a dentist named Dr. McKinley and he had teen age daughters that I thought were akin to movie stars. They had long legs and hair like Californian girls. And, the thing that made these girls so much more than just girls, was that they had a pink jeep. Yep, that's right, a pink jeep--the Wrangler type that looks like you could go on a safari, and it had a pink and white stripe canvas top for summer. Oh, my, how I loved it when every once in a while I caught a glimpse of that jeep on a hot summer day. The girls were laughing and their perfect movie star hair was blowing in the breeze. From that time on, I fancied myself in a jeep. [Maybe I could be practically-a-movie-star if I had one?]

But, it seemed once I got old enough to get a car, I was also married and then children were coming and what I needed was a mom-mobile. I have had a series of mom-mobiles that have served me well. We had a little Reliant K car wagon, a big-full size brown van [seated 9] and 3 mini-vans. They were all very sensible and just the thing for a family with five kids.

But the kids are pretty much grown now. Scotty will be 20 next month and our current mini van has pretty high mileage so Bob and I decided to buy a low mileage car that would seat five. So, we went looking for a sensible little car. Since everyone says that in this economy we could get a deal, we headed out of town and to the Chrysler dealer. Because my father in law retired from Chrysler we can get an even better deal, and with the bankruptcy, maybe they would pay us just to take one off their lot? As we were on our way there, we saw the makings of a terrible traffic jam, so we made a detour we decided to stop by a nice family run used car lot, just to see what they had.

As the friendly salesman was showing us the rather boring silver cars--and tell me, why does every car seem to be silver these days?--I spotted a jeep off to the side. A shiny red [did I mention that red is my favorite color?] Jeep. I swear it had my name on it. My husband says it is harder to negotiate a good price when your wife is drooling. I swear, I couldn't help it.

At any rate, it was in our price range-and did I mention it was red?- had only 21,000 miles on it and was a 2005. Perfect! The test drive went well, and so now I am the proud owner of my dream vehicle!

I have already driven through the creek three times and to the top of the hill at our farm once. No more mom-mobiles for me-and it only took 45 years! [As a note, I look great with my hair flying behind me as a drive with all the windows down--almost like a movie star!]