Once upon a time, a dad bought his 17-year-old daughter a car. More specifically, my dad bought me a 1987 Toyota Camry station wagon. At the time it was only 8 years old, but had been kind of abused by it’s previous owner so it was in rough shape. My dad nursed it back to health, and I named it Desmond. Oh, how I loved him!
He wasn’t the coolest looking car in the school parking lot, but he and I were total buddies. He got me through the rest of high school, all of college, and the early years of my marriage. Many, many memories were made in Desmond. Like when I was a freshman at Asbury College and wasn’t really supposed to have a car on campus and did and my friends talked me into sneaking out to town to Fazoli’s so we could all get 99 cent salads and all the breadsticks we could eat and avoid the college cafeteria for once! Or when Bobby and I and my friend Lori drove him to the Cornerstone music festival SO packed full of a camping gear you had to use both feet on the brakes to stop him! Oh, those were the days! When Desmond finally breathed his last in 2003, he had about 304,000 miles on him. Bobby and I were actually pretty emotional about “putting him out to pasture” so to speak.
So we bought this:
Our current Camry wagon, a 1992 (fully-loaded with SUNROOF thankyouverymuch! AND power windows, ahem, Emily) that even has the third pop-up seat in the back. That’s right, it seats SEVEN baby, SEVEN! It’s great for trips and for hauling Bobby’s sailboats in the summer. It’s really Bobby’s car so it doesn’t have a name (only chicks name their cars, right?) but we love this car to pieces. It has been SO dependable and gets us and all the crap we can pack in it everywhere we need to go. And? It’s got 257,650 miles on it! It’s finally to the point where it’s needed some major repairs, but that’s where having a mechanic for a husband comes in handy. We bought it for a very small sum back in 2003 and it has paid for itself many times over!
So, you heard Em’s Toyota story, and now you’ve heard mine – if you didn’t already share yours with us (or if any of my friends have any particular stories you want to share about MY Desmond!) please share today!
I LOVE my Toyotas! To see what other bloggers love, check out Things I Love Thursday at the Diaper Diaries.
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This post was written as part of the “Every Toyota has a Story” campaign. To share your story, visit Toyota’s Facebook page – although there is no way your story is going to be as good as mine. 🙂
I love my Jeep!
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“Many, many memories were made in Desmond.”
I thought this story was about to become “R” Rated.
Great story!
I have been reading your blog for over a year now and love it. I work at Asbury Theological Seminary across from Asbury Univerity(College), such a small world. Keep writing, I love reading your blog!
I got Desmond for 125 dollars since she had a broken CV joint. Just put a junk yard axil in her and she was good to go. Did have to replace the gas tank after a while. Second best deal I ever got in a car.
Desmond was a beast. He only quit running when a friend let it run dry of oil… it threw a rod… through the side of the engine block. That’s right, a great big hole in the side of the engine, oil everywhere… and the car would STILL START AND RUN. Unfortunately the damage was too great to repair. I keep a piece of one of the rod bearing caps ( that I found on the side of Interstate 675 ) from Desmond in my new Camry wagon for good luck.
Asbury College. WHOO HOO! And how cool about the ATS person who’s been reading for a year and didn’t know about your connection to it. 🙂
I don’t have a Toyota, but I do name my cars. I’ve had…Tommy the Tahoe (still driving him now!), Goldie the Grand Prix, Virginia the Van and Stella(Rockafella) the Suburban. My kids even refer to the cars by their names. Ha!
I named my husband’s work truck, Whitney. He doesn’t think that his work truck should have a girl name, but Whitney spoke to me. 🙂
Miles don’t scare me. Vehicles without sunroofs do.
Keep on truckin’!
hey! shout out to ME! Love it! Oh, Cornerstone… just one trip of MANY we took in Desmond together.
And I think it’s very funny that your dad called Desmond a “her.” He spent enough time under the hood to know that Desmond was a BOY CAR!
I’ve made many a trip to Cornerstone and I don’t know how you pulledit off having to break with 2 feet! That is talent. I have a new level of respect for you, Jenny.
Desmond traveled to C-stone 3 times. The pic of the car was my campsite in 1999. I went by myself that year and just slept in the back of the car.
My first car was a station wagon too! Glad you enjoyed yours for a long time!
Jenny’s husband, I’ve been to C-stone in Adam’s Ford Festiva, we were allowed to drive it around the festival like a golf cart!