Elvira the Car

Ahhh, my first car. I remember it well. It was baby blue.  A mustang. Year 1974? The year I’m not sure of. It was a used car. I bought it from someone for $200 because it was an insurance write off from a hail storm. The body looked like hell, but boy could that car run! I loved that car.

I named her Elvira,  because I thought the name was cool, and truth be known I liked the character Elvira that would come on late at night. I have named every car since with the same name. I’m up  to Elvira #4. Unfortunately Elvira #4 is not as cool as the original. As #1 was a Mustang and #4 is a Mini Van. When did getting older translate into boring?

I was living in south Texas at the time of Elvira #1. In Victoria, close to the Gulf. Back then it was pretty open country with long stretches of road. Elvira loved going down those long stretches. She could hit 110 with no problem.

 

There was this one particular road that was long, but it was hilly. Like a  roller coaster ride. Now that was fun! My traveling companion was Max, a German Shepherd whose 140 pounds filled up the back  seat. He loved going on trips with me. He would bark at each and every electric pole. Believe me no one messed with me and Elvira with Max on the job.

One day I decided to take a country drive down that roller coaster. It was a beautiful spring day. Max was filling up the back seat as usual and I was jamming with the radio. Victoria at that time was a bit of a rough and tumble place to live. A lot of oil rigs, truckers and migrant  workers. So I was always on alert when traveling alone.

On that day I just wanted a nice roller coaster run with Max. To get to that stretch of road I had to go through town and stop at a couple of stop lights. A big rig was behind me almost the whole way. Now, most truckers are nice,  friendly and polite. This particular trucker was an asshole.  He thought it would be fun to scare me. He saw a young woman alone in a ragtag vehicle and thought it would be fun to scare the crap out of  her. He would drive that big 18 wheeler as tight on the back end of Elvira as he could get without actually hitting  her. At the stops he would get so close a piece of paper wouldn’t fit between his front bumper and my back bumper.

Through the rear view mirror I could see him laughing! He thought he was scaring me. He wasn’t scaring me, he was just pissing me off. To him Elvira looked like she was ready for the junk heap. I knew what was under her dented and rusted hood. Pure power. I also knew that 18 wheeler would have to shift gears to get up that hilly road. It was a two lane highway. No passing zone all the way.

So I played along with this trucker’s sick  humor. Until I got to that hilly road. The first hill I zoomed up pretty fast, it was just a small one. That trucker would let me pull ahead a bit before he closed in again. The next hill was even bigger. So I slowed down, just enough to make him shift gears. He wasn’t smiling so much then. I let him catch up again. And once again he got as  close to my bumper as he could get. For good measure he let loose his air horn. I guess he thought that was intimidating. It wasn’t.

We closed in on the next hill and once again I slowed way down. I knew he had to shift gears to get up that hill. I stayed just enough in front of that big truck that he couldn’t catch up. A few more times  of this he was good and mad. I had traveled that road many times and I knew we were coming up to a stretch of road that had no hills. I was also sure that he was aware of that fact too.  I suspected  he was going to try to scare me really good on that stretch. I also was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to get the chance. I knew what Elvira could do. That trucker didn’t.

Sure enough, on that straight stretch that trucker got his rig up and going and he was coming on fast! I let him get about 6 feet behind me, and from the rear view mirror his face was one of anger and meanness. I stepped on the gas and Elvira didn’t let me down! We were doing 100 in no time at  all. Zoooommmm!!!! We left that trucker eating our dust!

I turned onto a side road as soon as I knew that trucker could no longer see us. I sat and waited till I saw him pass. Wow,  the look on his face was priceless! I was laughing and Max was barking. Elvira, well she was purring. I turned her towards home and gave her a good wash and shine later that day. She may not have looked like a fine, fast lady. But she  proved she was class all the way!