The Mighty ‘T’

My first car was a 1983 Ford Thunderbird.  It was black, had a V6 engine and guzzled petrol like a fish drinks water.  I loved that car, if in fact one can love an inanimate object.  The fact is, it cost me plenty, not just in petrol but also in repairs.  I had to change the exhaust and the cooling system, including the radiator, that’s not even taking into account one time that I was driving down the motorway and the windshield wipers flew off in either direction.  Unfortunately for me, it was winter in Southern Ontario and slush, snow and salt were being flung up onto the windshield.  Trips that were normally taking me half an hour were now taking up to 2 hours.  I now knew exactly why the wiper was invented in the first place.  I had to stop the car at least a dozen or more times each trip to wipe off the windshield manually.  I kept several packets of window wipes in the car just to make it down the street!

When I finally decided that it was time to get rid of the car, I took it to the local garage and asked my mechanic if he wanted to buy it.  I knew full well that he did, as anytime I would bring it in he would say, “Give me first chance to give you an offer if you ever decide to put this car up for sale.”
He knew the car better then anyone else and no matter what he offered, I figured he knew that it was worth more.  At this point I also figured that it was time to get rid of it because it was bleeding me dry.  I went in and had a word with him:
“Well, I’ve finally decided to let the car go, what do you want to offer me for it?”
He looked surprised, elated, but I could also tell that he was hatching up a plan to get a very low price.  He put a hand on my shoulder and he said, “I’ll give you $200.00 for it.”
Although he didn’t know it, the car only cost me $600 and I had already bought another car, so I couldn’t really afford to insure the both of them.  I just asked, “When can you give me the money?”
“Anytime you want, how about next Friday?”
“Friday it is then, it will give me a chance to drive it a bit more before I have to give it up.  I’ll bring it by Friday evening.”

I worked late on Thursday night and on the way home I decided to stop by the local McDonald’s to get something at the drive through.  I made my way to the speaker and a disembodied voice came through.
         “May I take your order please?”
         “I’ll have a quarter pounder meal with a coke.”
         “Would you like fries with that?
         I just shook my head in disbelief and said, “That was the meal, with a coke.”
         “Ok, what would you like to drink with that?”
         “A coke!”
         “Your order comes to $3.99, could you please drive up to the first window.”  I drove around to the first window and was greeted by a surly teenager who was not happy with her career choice.  “$3.99,” she said and I handed her a 5-dollar bill.  I watched as she tried to figure out the charge and, trying to help, said, “1.01.”
         “I know how much it is!”  She snapped and I was really hoping that this wasn’t going to affect the quality of my burger, fries or drink.  She handed over the change and said, “Drive up to the second window.”
         I drove up to the second window and was greeted by a young man whom I could only assume to be the restaurant manager.  “Good evening sir,” he said to me.
         “Evening,” I replied.
         “Your quarter pounder is going to be a few minutes, sir.”
         “That’s ok, just want me to wait here?”
         “Yea, that’ll be fine”, he said and closed the drive through window.
I played with the radio dial for a couple of seconds until I found a song that I wanted to listen to, leaned back in my seat and gently stretched. 

Normally, stretching wouldn’t cause any problem, however, I had left the car in drive with only my foot on the brake keeping the car in place.  I leaned back with a lot of force, to give my back a really good stretch when suddenly, I was looking up at the ceiling of the car and the car shot forward!  My foot slipped off the brake when the seat gave way, leaving me flat on my back and the car heading towards the busy car park.  I scrambled quickly to regain control of the car as a lamppost not far from the drive through window tore off the wing mirror on the passenger side.  To avoid doing any further damage to that side of the car, I turned the wheel sharply and crushed the left headlight into the wall of the restaurant. 

I put the car in reverse and pulled back up to the window just in time for it to open and the teenager to hand me out my food.
         “What are you doing Sir?”
         “Just forgot my food. Thanks,” I said, grabbed the bag and drove away from McDonald’s.  I was incredibly uncomfortable on the way home and found it almost impossible to drive the car without having a back on my seat, but I did finally get back home and was able to finish my burger.  The next day I propped up the seat with a few boards and some bricks and took the car over to my mechanic.

         “You are not going to believe what happened last night,” I said as I got out of the car.
         My mechanic looked into the backseat and shook his head, “No, I don’t imagine I will.”  I told him the short and embarrassing story.  He laughed through most of it and luckily was still smiling when he looked into the car again, “I can’t give you $200 for this car anymore.  I’m going to need another front seat.  Do you know what it’s like to drive a car without anything to lean back on?”
“Yea, I have an idea of what it’s like.”
He laughed again and said, “I guess you do.  Listen, you’ve been a really good customer over the years and I figure I can get another seat in the scrap yard.  How about you knock off $60?”
I gave a sigh and said, “Ok, just give me the $140.”
Still laughing, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a large roll of bills and gave me $140 for the best car that I ever had.  I gave him the ownership papers and he shook my hand.  I have to admit that even after all the trouble that that car had caused me, I still miss it, but not as much as I did as I walked back home that day.

The only other time that I ever saw the car again was one day when I was driving pasted the garage and I noticed that my car was up for sale.  I pulled into the car park and stopped in front of my old Ford T-bird and to my surprise; there was a sticker price of  $1,000.00 on it!  It appeared that my mechanic really did know the worth of the Mighty ‘T’!