Chapter 10 - Cars

Chapter 10

Cars

Marlene was no different than most in that she did enjoy the occasional new vehicle, but she could go longer that many. Say 8 to 10 years as an average length of time. She would love to talk about past vehicles she had driven and owned that included a Corvette and a Nissan Maxima and of course a Chevrolet Astre from the seventies. She also spoke of a Chrysler that in her words had so many holes you could throw a dead cat through the window at 50 paces.

She abhorred monthly payments so whatever she could do to minimize the amount she would try to do. In later years she would mention that we should go down to one vehicle but I never pressured her in any way as this was as she said her independence and I understood what she meant.

Included in this chapter are photos of the very few times she decided to avail herself of a new vehicle.

As a side note, I was able to trade vehicles more frequently partly because of the travel required by my work and that the company paid for mileage which went towards the monthly payments of the vehicle.

There was one instance however where she was hesitant and wanted me to hold for longer before changing again. Then one week she attended a writers’ conference in Baltimore and within one hour after her arrival she told me to go get the vehicle I wanted. I couldn’t believe what she was saying, and I never did ask her why she changed her mind but obviously something happened at the conference that caused her to change her mind.