In my debriefing, I saw the Monday Memory meme is "I remember blue...". Perfect. Blue has always been my favorite color, but blue can be so much more. Rhythm and blues, feeling sad, the designated color for the Democrats, feeling calm and quiet, the many colors of blue in the sky. My childhood bedroom was painted blue. My college's colors are blue and red. Both my children and my husband have blue eyes.
The blue I'm remembering today is the midnight blue mustang that was the first car I ever purchased. Still in high school, I had saved up my money, and my parents had offered to pay half. My dad, ever the deal finder, had a friend, who had a friend who was selling his 1966 Mustang. We paid a total of $600 for it. It did need some work, and ultimately, needed so much mechanical work, that somehow we got rid of it, and I bought a brand new shiny red Mustang Turbo. Definitely out with the old.
But oh, I loved that old Mustang. It didn't start out blue. No, it was, to me, a hideous bronze-ish gold color. Besides being a deal finder, my dad also had the equipment necessary to paint a car. I spent the spring and early summer of 1978 sanding and sanding, and sanding some more to rid the car of that gold. It was more quality time with Dad for this daddy's girl. And, ok, quality time with my boyfriend, who seemed impressed that I was willing to work this hard. It was a huge craft project, the kind that men seem to get lost in. And I was not in the least bit embarrassed to drive around with the primer and sanded spots. That was just temporary.
Midnight blue. Close your eyes and you can see the color. Not the black of night, but the stars and moon are out giving the sky a dark blue glow. It's deep and rich, but mostly deep and it goes on forever. That was the color that I wanted my Mustang to be.
What a lovely post - it evokes a time when all we needed was courage and tenacity...beautiful!
ReplyDeleteOh My Gawd!!!! That is one HOT car! You certainly deserved it after sanding down all that paint, man. How cool that must have been to have the hottest car of the time. Even better, to have had the chance to bond with your Dad, doing something that typically would have been a very male past time. I'm glad you were encouraged by him rather than discouraged. I'm sure it has made you a wonderfully powerful woman now.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about your brother my dear. I do hope that things are on the mend. Thank you so much for linking with me. It's funny that there are two posts about women loving their blue car. :)