an·thro·po·mor·phize transitive verb : to attribute human form or personality to intransitive verb : to attribute human form or personality to things not human
Ok, I had to look that word up in the dictionary to make sure I spelled it right because even a Geek Soopreme such as yours truly has never used the word before.
Do you name your cars? My family always did. I was brought home from the hospital in "Jezebel", a 1958 station wagon. We grew up with "Hugo" the VW and "Carl" the 1962 Buick and "Squeaky Susan" the 1968 Ford station wagon. My Daddy always recorded every gas purchase in a little book and we still have the book entitled "The Saga Of Squeaky Susan."
I have a 1992 Nissan Sentra with 232,436 miles on it. I finally caved and bought a 2006 Nissan Sentra last year. My first car was a 1985 Nissan Sentra. You may see a pattern here. Anyway, I'm extremely attached to my elderly vehicle. It still runs perfectly. I just decided to get a new one so I'd already be used to making car payments if the old car decided to go to the Rainbow Bridge Car Lot one day.
I named the new one "Car Noelle" not to be confused with "Shark Noelle" who is part of a large family of imaginary sharks that live with us. Well, the old car's name is "Tessie" and unfortunately "Tessie" got broken into the other day. We park Tessie on the street unlocked, since I figured that if someone wanted to break in at least they wouldn't break the windows. Somebody broke in and stole everything in the glove compartment except for the registration (now isn't that nice? Reminds me of the time one of my friends got mugged in NYC and he asked for subway fare and the mugger thoughtfully handed him $2.00 back). Also the thief thoughtfully left three keys marked "Mom's House" that I had forgotten were in the glove box (Sis, if you tell Mom I will have to kill you in a particularly painful fashion). The thief also didn't bother to close the door, leaving the inside light on, so the battery ran out.
I hope they enjoyed the 1992 Nissan Sentra Owner's Manual. Because they certainly didn't find a plastic bag of cocaine or a gun or a couple of hundred dollar bills stashed between the receipts for new tires and oil changes and insurance information in the glove box (weary sigh) I guess some people in SC actually do carry guns in their glove box. Me, I'd pull a Barney Fife and shoot myself in the foot if I ever tried to fire a weapon.
I don't what insane impulse prompted me to explain to the kids why we had to take Tessie in for a new battery! But Tessie is now parked in the driveway, blocking the other cars that we use daily, because "Tessie would be scared all alone in the street."
Maybe I should quit naming cars.
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9 comments:
Anthropomorphosim was my winning spelling bee word in 3rd grade. We had an 87 Jetta named Goldie but since then, no car names have stuck. Now we have Mama Car and Daddy Car.
We name and anthropomorphize our cars too. The Accord is named Bruno and the Dakota is named Delores. My first car was named Shirley and I still feel guilty for selling her.
My first car ('66 MG Midget) was named The Biscuit. Some guy I liked at the time said it looked like a biscuit or something. My kids did not know that when they named our latest cat Biscuit!
My first car was a 86 Subaru GL station wagon with 4wd. LOVED that car. We'd named it Buckaroo because it was Japanese-American, just like Buckaroo Bonzaii from one of our favorite movies.
When the day came that we had to say goodbye, I was heartbroken. I loved that car. Learned to drive in it, went off to college in it, and it was the first car I'd ever owned when I got it in my parents divorce.
Since then, I had a Corolla and a Saturn SL2. I wanted an Outback since they came out with the first one. People asked me what kind of car was my dream car-- "Outback". My Saturn was starting to decline but was still running well. The years had been kind and I found myself in a loving relationship with a wonderful man (who's now given me everything I've ever dreamed of!).
I was on a business trip and got a message from him.
"I did something today..."
What he had done was buy a brand new Subaru Outback LLBean edition with the intention of it replacing the Saturn.
So Buckaroo's long lost relative has come home to be with me again. I love it all over again. But I haven't found the right name yet, but Buckaroo 2 seems to be the current name.
And- since I'd sold him on the Outback and he'd been impressed with it- when he needed to replace his car-- it was with a Subaru Tribeca.
He refuses to name his car- so Buckaroo 2, Riley (our daughter) and I have been trying to find a name for it. :)
Also- because he grew up in a town up north, he can NOT leave a car parked in the street. Just drives him crazy. I like the idea of one of being scared or lonely and thats why we block in one in the driveway.
We name cars, too. Growing up my favorite car was our yellow '57 Chevy named Betsy. Daddy's truck (a green GMC) was called Green Mountain Climber.
My current Suburban is named Beauty and one of her predecessors was named Matilda. Matilda taught our kids to drive, back up, pull in and parallel park. She was a good friend; I blogged about selling my best friend when we parted with her.
I'm sorry Tessie was broken into; I hope she is recovering from the trauma.
i called my first car, Bubble. It's this small little japanese made car, but it's really efficient gas-wise. it is shaped like a bubble, hence the name
We have a min-van called Vanna (geddit?! Har har!) and a Dodge Neon called Trudy. Before that I had a little bright green Geo Metro called Fiona and before that was Dougal, my little red Ford Escort.
Good for the kids, not leaving poor Tessie all alone in the street!
^^^^ Vanna - that slays me!
We seem to name our cars too. My first one, a 1977 Toyota Corona, was The Watermelon Wagon. We now have Helga, a Porsche 911 (that I sometimes think my husband loves more than me) and The Beast, a Honda Ridgeline. Strangely, my blue Passat remains nameless. Any ideas?
I had an old Dodge once that I named Christine. After the early 1980's horror movie about a car named Christine. It was such a lemon that it was frightening to drive it. She was replaced by Susie Subaru, who lasted many years.
Edie
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