Thursday, February 25,2010

driving..then and now...


I passed my driving test on the first time-probably because there was no math involved. My mom was a little disappointed because she thought that if i had failed, I would become a more careful driver(this coming from the woman who also brought a prayer book in the car with her the first and only time she took me driving)...so in order to get some self esteem back, I called my mom's good friend so SHE could tell me how excited she was for me.

The freedom that came with driving-I loved it. I didn't care where I was going, as long as I could be in the car. Weather didn't bother me, traffic didn't phase me, it was awesome. And then, it became even better....I got Goober. Goober was my grandfather's 1980, brown on brown, Cadillac Sedan Deville. He had sumptuous leather seats and an incredible sound system(am/fm stereo AND tape deck). Though not a minivan, it had seating capacity of 10 teenagers....the back seat was as big as a couch (i won't be discussing the backseat, get your minds out of the gutter!!)
After a few years with Goober (since I got him in 1988 and he was already 8 years old...)the glue that held the ceiling together started to atrophy and the fabric separated from the top of the inside of the car...I called this "theatre like" seating...but at some point, I had to staple gun it back up because I couldn't see out the back window....

Goober was broken into twice...on the upper west side after unsuccessful single-socializing simchat torah weekends...but he survived and just got stronger. No one messes with a brown cadillac...when I went to Wurzeiler in washington heights, all of my homies thought i was a drug dealer....what nice jewish girl drives a car like that? No one cut me off on the streets of new york city, because they all thought I was an armed livery cab driver...I felt very safe in Goober. or was it because I was still young and invincible? Driving fast in the snow never phased me and now, I am the annoying old lady on west englewood avenue that drives 5 miles an hour in the snow with her blinkers on (yeah, sorry, that's me....)

So Goober became a Ganchrow through marriage, (though, in my heart, he will always be a Latkin). My brother drove me to my wedding in Goober as we listened to New Order on the tape deck...Goober came with us to our first apartment in Englewood and survived the big snow storm of 1996...what a trouper. But then we got the news, upon going in for a check up, the mechanic told us that Goober's time had come. There was nothing they could do for him....you know it must have been really bad if the mechanic that had been saving Goober for years and totally ripping us off in the process, could not come up with a solution to Goober's ailments.

So, we called Lubavitch and asked them to take Goober to the world to come. And I am sure that when the Messiah comes back for our redemption,in a quick and speedy time, he will not be riding a stately, white horse, but, he will be driving my beloved Goober. I still have one of his hubcaps...lord rest his precious soul.

drive carefully out there...

Happy Thursday