I Miss Ol' Blue

Damn, I miss my Volvo.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Vicky. But there are times when I wish I had my old light blue, 1989 Volvo 740GLE. I had some great times with that car (none of them involving sexy time, I'm afraid).

I got Ol' Blue in late 1996. It was my first car that I drove daily. Before then I'd been borrowing various family cars, mostly my sister's old Ford Tempo. Ol' Blue came with black leather seats, buttwarmers, a factory cassette player, and power sunroof that failed twice. Blue took us on numerous trips to Myrtle Beach and once to Hilton Head. Her main function was getting me to school and carting me and my old school chum around town on our various nerdly adventures to The Reader's Corner, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Capital Comics, Foundation's Edge, and our favorite movie theaters. For Christmas in 1997 I got a CD player for Ol' Blue. No more tedious sessions recording mix tapes, it was high-tech CDs for me. I played the first CD I ever burned off Napster on Blue's stereo. I picked up my chum's freaky goth girlfriend in Ol' Blue. I used her trunk as a locker my senior year, and as a hiding place for my chum's frivolous action figure purchases so that his parents wouldn't find out what he'd blown his money on.

Blue met her undignified demise when her timing chain broke. The mechanic said that in addition she was in need of new piston rings, at a cost my parents were unwilling to pay. They opted to get me the 4Runner instead, which was and continues to be a great car. I just wish they had maybe kept Blue in storage somewhere to await a resurrection, but instead they chose to sell it to the mechanic for parts. He probably did the ring job himself and resold it at a nice profit.

Despite my current vehicle's vintage (1998), if I truly wish to re-visit the gilded age of the 1990s, I'd have to have Ol' Blue back. I long to play the hits of the late '90s on her JVC stereo while rocking my old Timberland boots and big plaid shirts. I'd put the South Park bumper sticker back on, and my NCSU stickers. Perhaps a "Clinton Happens" sticker as well?

Future plans for my '90s fantasies include redecorating the guest room in my current house to resemble my bedroom circa 1997. I have an invaluable guide to go by, which is a photo of my bedroom I took in 1997 on the day I got my Kodak Advantix camera (remember those?). It shows the arrangement of decorative objects on my dresser, most of which I still possess. My parents likely still have remnants of the original green wall paint which I can get duplicated, and they still have the old curtains. The old CD player will go in there somewhere, and I'll hang up the 3x5 Union Jack over the bed.