#2: The Dodge
This is a story about a car.
However, it has nothing to do with the impressive purple paint job, which is polished off by a sparkling metal flake roof. This story also has nothing to do with the three hundred and fifty cubic inch Chevy crate motor under the hood, the wide white vintage coker tires, the chrome grill, or even the fact that it is a 1954 American Dodge. This story is about how this car — a vehicle affectionately referred to as “The Dodge” by his owners — is intrinsically linked to Sheri, whose relationship with the car commenced on September 30, 2000. Coincidentally, this was also the same day her relationship with Brandon began.
“It was our first ‘real’ date,” Sheri said. “We went for a cruise in The Dodge to a car event.”
But the cruising did not stop that night.
After the first date, The Dodge carried them to the celebration on the night he proposed, it was a key member of their wedding party when they got married, it drove them thousands of miles across the continent on their honeymoon, and it was equipped with a baby seat on the morning they brought their son, Ben, home from the hospital.
However, despite being such an integral and priceless part of all of these monumental life events, Sheri does not necessarily treat The Dodge like a precious heirloom; permanently parking the car in plastic wrap — preserving it and the memories it carries — in a dark garage for eternity, away from the distracted drivers, bug splatter, and stone chips.
“From May until October, I drive it as often as I can,” she told me with a smile. “I drive it to work in the summer if it’s nice out, I drive it to the gym, and I take it to the grocery store.”
After witnessing the euphoria that exudes from her face when she is sitting behind the wheel, I know why Sheri loves to drive this car.
Every time she turns the key in the ignition, puts the car in gear, grips the steering wheel, and wakes up the horses sleeping in the stables beneath the gas peddle, she is immediately transported through time. Back to that first date with Brandon, back to the night they got engaged, back to the wedding day, back to the honeymoon, and back to the day they officially became a family of three. The Dodge is not just a car.
It is a time machine.
