Lydia Turns 16!
Lydia'a First Car - Hound Dog Keeps Watchful Eye
The baby in the family is no longer a baby. I guess she hasn’t been for quite some time but there is surely something about turning 16 that rattles my cage a bit. The last of the three teens has reached the milestone Sweet 16 and she is perched and ready to roll – DRIVE, that is. For weeks and even months Lydia has anticipated and planned for this big moment. She completed drivers education right on time and has been a ready and willing permit driver for the past year. She has spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel and I must say, she is pretty proficient. I will even go so far as to call her safe and competent – she had better be, right? Look out Onslow County drivers – here she comes!
She will join the ranks of most of her girl friends who are also now young teen drivers and her world will be forever changed by this once in a lifetime event known as the 16th birthday. The sensation and thrill of being able to independently operate the vehicle and drive away from the house, all by herself is something incomparable to any experience as yet in her short sweet life. At 53 years old, I can distinctly remember that very sensation, that thrill of the moment when I got my drivers license and cruised down the path and off of the farm for the first time.
Unlike Lydia however, it would be my third year in college before I got my first car – a Ford Pinto hatchback automatic with some age and miles for which my Dad paid $1500. I thought I had arrived in heaven! Lydia has been edging and pitching for a “car” for a few months. The topic of discussion came and went at home and was mostly situated on the back burner, no promised were made and we adopted the “lets wait and see” approach. Given that we are juggling the life and times of three teens of driving age and preparing to launch Kass to college in a few short months, indeed, “let’s wait and see” took on a new and very real meaning for us all.
Alas, the birthday was drawing near and Lydia was wondering if a car for her was in the cards. She kept a low profile with her Christmas wish list since her birthday arrives just days after Christmas. She hinted, fretted, moaned and dreamed of getting a car. After some shuffling, adding and subtracting, considering, and juggling, we elected to make the plunge for a car for Lydia. We theorized and justified that with Kass being away at school and not allowed to have a car and Austin not yet having a drivers license, that it seems legitimate for the “baby” Lydia to have a car. She and I set forth to scout out some cars, not really knowing what we were looking for, but we set out anyway.
After only a few days, some phone calls and driving around local USED car establishments, we found something that Lydia liked just fine and within the parameters that had been decided upon. We test drove it over a week-end, looking for any possible bumps and lumps. Lydia’s Dad, who is a car enthusiast and knows ALOT of things about cars, gave it the full examination and then some. It was determined that the little car would be a keeper – YEAH! Lydia has her own car!
Who else can recount the monumental occasion of getting a drivers license and even the first car?
I saw that cute little car the other day and wondered if it was Lydia’s. It looks even cuter with Lydia behind the wheel!