ode to jeep.

(...okay, so it's more of a love letter...than an ode.)

my papa was a great man.
(cue my tears.)
he was a businessman, he was a salesman, he was a greatman.
everybody loved him.
everybody.
which made him good at what he did.
and growing up during the depression made him frugal.
he hardly spent money on himself.
but he would spend money on his grandkids.
(because he had that money to do so, being so frugal.)
always offering to buy us snacks from the concession stand every week at one of our ball games, always filling our Easter eggs with big bills, randomly handing us $20 at departures...
he was very generous.

as we grew older, he offered to pay a large portion of each grandkids' first vehicle.

i had my heart set on a white jeep wrangler; papa was concerned that it would tip too easily, being my first ride. (which in hindsight...it very-well could've.)
we compromised on a white jeep laredo.

i was ecstatic.
i really loved that thing.
(i loved it too well.)
i named her laverne. (it's not a long story, just more of an obvious one.)

my papa passed away two years after...
i was so thankful to have gotten to go through the process with him, watching him haggle with the car salesman...that guy didn't know what he had gotten himself into. iii didn't know what i had gotten myself into; i was a nervous wreck each time papa told the guy we couldn't spend that much. (not realizing it was all for the cause all along.)

i had the jeep so long, it became part of my identity.
when there was talk of needing a more reliable vehicle years later, people insisted i still get a jeep...that i was a "jeep girl," and they couldn't see me driving anything else.
when i got to the point of looking, i could never get to the point of selling.
once i started pouring more and more money into it, and when the mechanics and technicalities of the jeep got to be too much to handle, the emotions would set in...i couldn't get rid of the jeep my papa had bought for me. it was such a constant reminder...one that i was grateful for.

one fateful day, i was on my way to church when she finally waned-out on me. the jeep just began shaking uncontrollably on the highway, scaring me half to death. (turned out, all the gears in the differential had come undone and were all rumblin together in there.)
fixing it was going to cost more than selling it after it was fixed would get me.
i had to sell her for her parts.
by the time she finally sold, i was practically to the point of being glad because it was all so exhausting.
until the day of...it really was a sad day, a sad goodbye.
i felt stupid for crying...like it was such a cliche to cry when you get rid of your first vehicle, but i knew the jeep meant and stood for so much more to me than that.

i was only going to get $550 for her at most after calling countless yards, until a guy called the day i was supposed to sell it and offered $1,100. i was so relieved...a significant-enough amount of money that i could put into my next vehicle--so papa would still be helping me out.

thanks, papa. i love you-and miss you every day.

october 1, 2006--december 7, 2012.

i live. i ride. i am. jeep. ;)