Love at First Sight: Dirt and All!

We were just cruising through the local car lot as so many people do, "just to see what they had." Suddenly, I spotted her! She was all dirty and shoved to the back row like some forgotten toy. "Oh, Look! Look!" I squealed to my husband. "Stop the car!"

He just smiled and stopped, knowing it was no use to argue when something struck my fancy. I jumped out and ran around her, checking for body damage. "Oh, she's gorgeous!" I kept exclaiming, barely able to contain my excitement. That is how love at first sight affects you, you know.

My husband took his own tour around her, but he had a frown on his face. What was wrong with him? Didn't he just love her too? Sure she was dirty, but a good washing would take care of that. As if to prove my point, I rubbed away some of the grime. "Oh, look at this gorgeous color! She will just sparkle in the sun." I told him.

My skeptical husband tried to bring me down to earth by wondering why she was sitting in the back row all forlorn and dirty. After all she was only 4 years old, and should have been washed and sitting up front. She was surely worth a lot of money! There didn't appear to be any body damage and the interior looked great.

"Maybe it's not even for sale." My husband's words shattered my enthusiasm. "Maybe it's just in for repairs."

"Let's go find someone and ask!" I was certain she was for sale, had to be, because I was in love and I wanted this car! This was back in 1973. Car lot owners didn't jump you as soon as you drove in. People browsed the lots just to look and if they wanted information they asked. Sales men left you alone until you looked for them.

Inside we were told that they had just gotten the car in as a trade in. She had a bad timing chain, and other than that they didn't know a lot about her. My husband could tell how badly I wanted that car, so he began to make a deal.

I looked out into the parking lot at the cute little convertible we had driven in with. That Comet Caliente was his pride and joy. I was so shocked when he offered to trade it in, if they fixed the timing chain on the car out back and gave us a good price. "You love that car!" I told him.

"I love you more," My darling husband said, "And you want that car out back!"

He made the deal and we waited for them to put a timing chain in what was now my car. We were driving the comet while we waited. It broke down and stopped running. The car lot didn't care! They delivered my freshly washed baby on the back of a tow truck and picked up the Comet! The deal was made, she was clean, she was running and she was all mine!

It turns out that my husband loved that car as much as I did, or at least close to it. She has been with us all of these years too. Right now, she is sitting in the garage waiting for the day she gets rebuilt. The years have taken a toll on her, but she is still my baby!

If you are curious enough to know just what kind of car she is, and read her own personal view on her life with us, you can check out what she has to "say" here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/858605/classic_car_craze_an_era_gone_by.html?cat=27