I've been reauthenticated so now I can tell you What I Want. What I really really want. :)
Cars came first. Christine because she was possessed like a Steven King character. She kept causing accidents! Goodness, I can't remember if the next car had a name. I can almost remember her make and model. Then I moved to California and became a rock climber and a grad student A big old Dodge Ram named Lulu. She served me well, but then I became part of a team and our household did not need TWO pick up trucks that sat rarely used while my partner rode his motorcycle everywhere and I rode one of my four (or was it five?) bicycles most everywhere. Ah...Santa Barbara. Since everyone knows a Toyota Tacoma is a better long-term investment than a Dodge, it was time for Lulu to go. Fortunately she was purchased by a City College employee and I got to see her in the parking lot for years to come. The relationship ended and I had no motorized wheels! How was I supposed to get to my cyclocross races in LA that were to be my mental health/relationship excise/exercise? Cue Sassy Sally the Blue Sensation an adorable Honda Fit that was at heart a circus car, if you packed her full things would just keep coming out of the car! Two bikes and all my camping gear while living in the Rocky Mountains for four months? No problem! Then came time to liquidate everything except two bicycles. I was going to bikepack all over the world for undetermined amount of time. I sold Sally to super bad-ass biker/climber lady friend younger than myself who died of cancer not too long after. Covid had brought me back to Santa Barbara and Sally almost came home to me, but the esposa of her now tragically deceased owner had taken a liking to Sally and decided to keep her. I don't need no stinkin' car! Off to Oregon I went to work and live for a summer, car free with an uncountable miles of trails out my backdoor. Cue the first wildfire and evacuation of the season. It turns out a car is really helpful in this situation (this was the late-Covid era where car rentals were impossible to get and cost as much a good used car) so a good used car it was to be. I emergency purchased a 10 year old Subaru Outback with heated leather seats and a moon roof. This car, oh my goodness what WAS her name?, was never *my* car. I year later I sold her for what I paid. Enter Hashbrown. Oh lovely, money sucking Hashbrown, my first (and to date) only van. 1995 Ford Aerostar. They are spacious and despite the low mileage, age is the ultimate destroyer of things: valves, hoses, all things plastic disintegrating. One by one, I fix what I can and pay too much money to have other things fixed, but it always feels like stop gap measures. Never really making them whole or getting ahead. So much like life.
Ha, I'm not even going to reread that stream of consciousness above and there is no time to talk about the bikes. All the bikes! I hope to return to read the other comments! xx
Christine! Lulu! Sassy Sally! Oh my. What a host of vehicles and times I love to imagine. Sally in the Rockies, the uncountable mile of trails out the back door. The cyclocross. The car free moments. And oh, Hashbrown. Be still my heart. Getting older ain't for the weak of engine, as they say. Or something like that. Don't let Ruby hear me saying this, but I've done some repairs on her recently that, well, I know are stopgap and I hope, hope, hope are the last I need to consider for at least awhile.
Thank you, thank you for sharing. I love learning all of this. And the bikes! I'm sure the stories and names are endless. And, for sure, check out the other comments. Some wonderful stories here.
And p.s. who unauthenticated you?! I'm not sure what that means. But how dare they! Glad you're back. :)
My dad has always named his vehicles and I've picked up the torch. We've had Baby Blue, a cute little Mazda 3, as well as Big Blue, a cranky bit reliable 1995 Ford 150 pickup. Then along came Larry, a 2007 Ford Lariat pickup. My current car is Casper, a white Prius and my husband has a Prius named Dash. Not only is Dash larger and peppier than Casper, Dash was the headmaster of Casper's ghost school.
Hahaha! I LOVE that Dash was the headmaster of Casper's ghost school. If only they could have known then they'd end up sharing a driveway. Thank you for sharing these lovely names.
And Ruby (my van) is a 1996 Ford E-150. Crank but reliable rings true. :)
Most of my vehicles have remained nameless, but I did have a 1978 Orange VW Type II Camper Van that I gave 2 names: The first name was ridiculously long but very aptly described her, Hotel Mandarin Sunshine, for she was a festive orange and provided an excellent place to lay my head whether near or far. The second name was Gretchen and was only used when she gave me trouble as old Volkswagens often will.
Thanks for the prompt, I voted for the polls, but would take a prompt to be creative or whatever you throw at me. I think you are full of great ideas and it’s fun reading your posts.
Hotel Mandarin Sunshine is a fantastic name! Love that she was "festive orange." And Gretchen for when she was acting up. I can hear the tone. "Come on, Gretchen." Thank you, thank you for sharing.
Prompts and polls! Agreed. TBH, I much liked writing the poll.
Holly, I love this so much because I haven't met many folks IRL who name their vehicles and here are all these kindred souls!
We always name ours. Years ago I was driving home from the dealership in a new-to-me Subaru Outback (so without reading any further you know I am a middle aged, mountain mama🤣)and I knew if I walked in the door my family would take over in the naming of the vehicle and I wasn't having it. I walked in and informed them "I got a new car and her name is Lola". There was also 'Blue' for the Ford F150 who had a great, long adventurous mountain life and now lives on the beach in Mexico (sadly, not our beach but our buddies), our current truck is Toby, my car is CeCe and the list goes on!
We also name the trees in our yard and are very attached to them. I'm quite certain everyone names their trees, right?!
Also, I love the shoutout to Michael. I enjoy his work very much.
Thanks, Donna! Yes, loving all these kindred should myself. :)
I love that you took ownership of Lola's name. Seems perfect for the ride of a middle aged mountain mama! And wow, what a journey Blue has had. Imagine the stories that Ford could tell. Hope Toby and CeCe are treating you and the mountains well.
I name some of my houseplants. And my 11-year-old nephew names trees in his neighborhood and references them like friends. It's wonderful. I'm trying to remember the name of the one he named a few years back that I believe was his first tree friend. I texted him on his watch, but he is in school I suppose, so I'll have to wait.
1. Pat the farm truck - he had a red interior and a scruffy tan exterior. In my high school days he lugged many of my soccer teammates around in his bed. He was my only stick shift vehicle and I loved him.
2. Ophelia - a purple corolla sedan. She came with a shiny sticker on the dash that chimed ‘remember to buckle up!’ If she was a person she would have lived in a home that always smelled of freshly baked cookies and was filled to the brim with porcelain figurines.
3. Bruce Willis - my 2005 silver Toyota Corolla, shiny, bald, and handsome. He was the first car that really belonged to me. (The other two being family cars shared amongst siblings). At one point I had to replace his hood. I, being a broke college student, opted for the cheaper, mismatched black hood. I saved $200! He became a two-toned vehicle. I thought it made him look distinguished. I spent countless hours and miles in that reliable, gas efficient baby. He unfortunately couldn’t follow me when I moved to San Francisco but he will forever live on in my heart.
4. Beverly - my Honda CRV. I framed her plates with sunflowers and my husband put in heated seats for Christmas last year. She’s now practically perfect in every way.
5. Bob - my husbands’ 2011 Prius. He was a very becoming grey-blue sort of color. And his gas milage was top-notch. An excellent car.
6. A new as of yet unnamed, white mini-van that Bob got traded in for in preparation for baby girl #2… tbd. Bye Bob!
I love it! Good old Pat. And oh, Ophelia, I like that her house would have been filled with porcelain figures. Two-toned Bruce Willis, Beverly with her sunflowers and heated seats. What a fleet you've had. And yay for baby girl #2--already expanding the family in more ways than one.
Thanks! That’s pretty much what I thought about someone who goes from armed robbers to airedales. Looking forward to the stories. And glad you’re here. :)
I only started naming vehicles when I started living in them. The first and largest one was Blue Wing. She was a 36 foot Catalina sloop. Blue Wing came from a song by Tom Russel. It is a bitter sweet song about dreams when you are down and out, dreams that keep you moving forward.
The next vehicle to be named was Blue Wing's dinghy. This dinghy came with the boat and didn't have a name for a while. It was pretty beat up. And then one day I dragged it through some desolate shallows off a lonely island in the Bahamas. This caused even more damage to the poor boat. It was still buoyant but it was more like a floating wading pool. I decided to name it Little Willie John after a character in the sing Blue Wing.
Little Willie John was incarcerated in Walla Walla and the cell mate of the protagonist in the song. Eventually I discovered that that Little Willie John was a real person, a blues singer and song writer.
Little Willie John, the dinghy, finally sunk. It was at a marina in Florida. We came back one morning and found him deflated and his outboard laying on the dock. A couple of sailors helped us bring the outboard back to life but there was no hope for Little Willie John. He was chucked into a dumpster.
We replaced Little Willie John with a Walker Bay. Walker Bays are tiny little plastic rowing dinghies. Some sailors like to prejoratively refer to them as floating butter tubs. But we loved this Walker Bay. As a nod to Little Willie John we named him Fever after the song originally recorded by Little Willie and subsequently made famous by Peggy Lee. Fever was scrappy and solid. We loved rowing him through mangrove trails.
The only drawback to Fever was that he was only a two person boat. We decided to get a dinghy with an inflatable floor that we could store inside Blue Wing for when we had guests. Greg named this one Jethrine. You know the twin sister of Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies. Jethrine was big and fluffy and you never saw her when Jethro was around.
Our first van, a diesel VW Vanagon Westfalia was named Great A'Tuin after the giant turtle who is traveling through the universe to an unknown destination with 3 elephants on its back who hold up the flat planet of Discworld. Discworld is the invention of the late writer Sir Terry Pratchet. Unfortunately Great A'Tuin never took us very far before needing a completely new engine. We decided to let someone else bring Great A'Tuin back to life.
And now we live in Ballena Blanca. She is a large and white cargo van that we converted ourselves. She has taken us all over North America and hopefully one day to destinations further South and over seas. In Spanish her name means white whale.
Thank you for sharing! Your writing is so good! The image of when you “dragged it through some desolate shallows off a lonely island in the Bahamas”---mmmm.
Oh Little Willie John and the Blue Wing. And Fever and Jethrine. And Great A’Tuin, the turtle with three elephants on her back. And of course, Ballena Blanca, my favorite cuz I’ve been in her belly.
I always think of us all, you and Greg and Ruby and Ballena Blanca and me as kindred spirits. These stories are a reminder of such.
I also voted in your poll and said I was keen on the essays, but I’m also keen on whatever you feel compelled to write about because I think one of the cool things about engaging with writers is finding out what inspires them, what they feel inclined to write about, what they notice, and then seeing how they write about these things.
Also, this line — “ Bikey McBikerson II makes it clear that my naming skills have aged like fine wine.” — really made me laugh.
It’s hard to give any life tips, but I will say I like going for walks - I feel like they help me slow down and put things in perspective.
Oh, yes. Great life tip. Walking is a wonderful way to clear the head. (Maybe I should reword "life tips" to something less heavy sounding. Day-to-day tips? Moment tips? Tips for what's working now? Ha. I'll workshop it ;). ) Thanks for sharing.
My favorite line of the piece that one.
And you're welcome. Finding writing that makes me feel connected is one of my fav things here on the Stack.
I've been reauthenticated so now I can tell you What I Want. What I really really want. :)
Cars came first. Christine because she was possessed like a Steven King character. She kept causing accidents! Goodness, I can't remember if the next car had a name. I can almost remember her make and model. Then I moved to California and became a rock climber and a grad student A big old Dodge Ram named Lulu. She served me well, but then I became part of a team and our household did not need TWO pick up trucks that sat rarely used while my partner rode his motorcycle everywhere and I rode one of my four (or was it five?) bicycles most everywhere. Ah...Santa Barbara. Since everyone knows a Toyota Tacoma is a better long-term investment than a Dodge, it was time for Lulu to go. Fortunately she was purchased by a City College employee and I got to see her in the parking lot for years to come. The relationship ended and I had no motorized wheels! How was I supposed to get to my cyclocross races in LA that were to be my mental health/relationship excise/exercise? Cue Sassy Sally the Blue Sensation an adorable Honda Fit that was at heart a circus car, if you packed her full things would just keep coming out of the car! Two bikes and all my camping gear while living in the Rocky Mountains for four months? No problem! Then came time to liquidate everything except two bicycles. I was going to bikepack all over the world for undetermined amount of time. I sold Sally to super bad-ass biker/climber lady friend younger than myself who died of cancer not too long after. Covid had brought me back to Santa Barbara and Sally almost came home to me, but the esposa of her now tragically deceased owner had taken a liking to Sally and decided to keep her. I don't need no stinkin' car! Off to Oregon I went to work and live for a summer, car free with an uncountable miles of trails out my backdoor. Cue the first wildfire and evacuation of the season. It turns out a car is really helpful in this situation (this was the late-Covid era where car rentals were impossible to get and cost as much a good used car) so a good used car it was to be. I emergency purchased a 10 year old Subaru Outback with heated leather seats and a moon roof. This car, oh my goodness what WAS her name?, was never *my* car. I year later I sold her for what I paid. Enter Hashbrown. Oh lovely, money sucking Hashbrown, my first (and to date) only van. 1995 Ford Aerostar. They are spacious and despite the low mileage, age is the ultimate destroyer of things: valves, hoses, all things plastic disintegrating. One by one, I fix what I can and pay too much money to have other things fixed, but it always feels like stop gap measures. Never really making them whole or getting ahead. So much like life.
Ha, I'm not even going to reread that stream of consciousness above and there is no time to talk about the bikes. All the bikes! I hope to return to read the other comments! xx
Christine! Lulu! Sassy Sally! Oh my. What a host of vehicles and times I love to imagine. Sally in the Rockies, the uncountable mile of trails out the back door. The cyclocross. The car free moments. And oh, Hashbrown. Be still my heart. Getting older ain't for the weak of engine, as they say. Or something like that. Don't let Ruby hear me saying this, but I've done some repairs on her recently that, well, I know are stopgap and I hope, hope, hope are the last I need to consider for at least awhile.
Thank you, thank you for sharing. I love learning all of this. And the bikes! I'm sure the stories and names are endless. And, for sure, check out the other comments. Some wonderful stories here.
And p.s. who unauthenticated you?! I'm not sure what that means. But how dare they! Glad you're back. :)
I've just been re-authenticated again! That's what I get for using different devices (it's a simple email check and push of a button).
Come on Ruby! You got this!
My dad has always named his vehicles and I've picked up the torch. We've had Baby Blue, a cute little Mazda 3, as well as Big Blue, a cranky bit reliable 1995 Ford 150 pickup. Then along came Larry, a 2007 Ford Lariat pickup. My current car is Casper, a white Prius and my husband has a Prius named Dash. Not only is Dash larger and peppier than Casper, Dash was the headmaster of Casper's ghost school.
Hahaha! I LOVE that Dash was the headmaster of Casper's ghost school. If only they could have known then they'd end up sharing a driveway. Thank you for sharing these lovely names.
And Ruby (my van) is a 1996 Ford E-150. Crank but reliable rings true. :)
Most of my vehicles have remained nameless, but I did have a 1978 Orange VW Type II Camper Van that I gave 2 names: The first name was ridiculously long but very aptly described her, Hotel Mandarin Sunshine, for she was a festive orange and provided an excellent place to lay my head whether near or far. The second name was Gretchen and was only used when she gave me trouble as old Volkswagens often will.
Thanks for the prompt, I voted for the polls, but would take a prompt to be creative or whatever you throw at me. I think you are full of great ideas and it’s fun reading your posts.
Hotel Mandarin Sunshine is a fantastic name! Love that she was "festive orange." And Gretchen for when she was acting up. I can hear the tone. "Come on, Gretchen." Thank you, thank you for sharing.
Prompts and polls! Agreed. TBH, I much liked writing the poll.
Holly, I love this so much because I haven't met many folks IRL who name their vehicles and here are all these kindred souls!
We always name ours. Years ago I was driving home from the dealership in a new-to-me Subaru Outback (so without reading any further you know I am a middle aged, mountain mama🤣)and I knew if I walked in the door my family would take over in the naming of the vehicle and I wasn't having it. I walked in and informed them "I got a new car and her name is Lola". There was also 'Blue' for the Ford F150 who had a great, long adventurous mountain life and now lives on the beach in Mexico (sadly, not our beach but our buddies), our current truck is Toby, my car is CeCe and the list goes on!
We also name the trees in our yard and are very attached to them. I'm quite certain everyone names their trees, right?!
Also, I love the shoutout to Michael. I enjoy his work very much.
Thanks, Donna! Yes, loving all these kindred should myself. :)
I love that you took ownership of Lola's name. Seems perfect for the ride of a middle aged mountain mama! And wow, what a journey Blue has had. Imagine the stories that Ford could tell. Hope Toby and CeCe are treating you and the mountains well.
I name some of my houseplants. And my 11-year-old nephew names trees in his neighborhood and references them like friends. It's wonderful. I'm trying to remember the name of the one he named a few years back that I believe was his first tree friend. I texted him on his watch, but he is in school I suppose, so I'll have to wait.
And yeah, Michael's work is awesome.
My cars:
1. Pat the farm truck - he had a red interior and a scruffy tan exterior. In my high school days he lugged many of my soccer teammates around in his bed. He was my only stick shift vehicle and I loved him.
2. Ophelia - a purple corolla sedan. She came with a shiny sticker on the dash that chimed ‘remember to buckle up!’ If she was a person she would have lived in a home that always smelled of freshly baked cookies and was filled to the brim with porcelain figurines.
3. Bruce Willis - my 2005 silver Toyota Corolla, shiny, bald, and handsome. He was the first car that really belonged to me. (The other two being family cars shared amongst siblings). At one point I had to replace his hood. I, being a broke college student, opted for the cheaper, mismatched black hood. I saved $200! He became a two-toned vehicle. I thought it made him look distinguished. I spent countless hours and miles in that reliable, gas efficient baby. He unfortunately couldn’t follow me when I moved to San Francisco but he will forever live on in my heart.
4. Beverly - my Honda CRV. I framed her plates with sunflowers and my husband put in heated seats for Christmas last year. She’s now practically perfect in every way.
5. Bob - my husbands’ 2011 Prius. He was a very becoming grey-blue sort of color. And his gas milage was top-notch. An excellent car.
6. A new as of yet unnamed, white mini-van that Bob got traded in for in preparation for baby girl #2… tbd. Bye Bob!
I love it! Good old Pat. And oh, Ophelia, I like that her house would have been filled with porcelain figures. Two-toned Bruce Willis, Beverly with her sunflowers and heated seats. What a fleet you've had. And yay for baby girl #2--already expanding the family in more ways than one.
Thank you for sharing!
I just wanna read the craziness yet sweet freedom that must come with living in a van. Who can resist someone who names her cars!
Thanks! That’s pretty much what I thought about someone who goes from armed robbers to airedales. Looking forward to the stories. And glad you’re here. :)
The poll only let's you choose 1 option? Of course I'm here for the essays. And obviously I'm into polls.
And prompts ;).
I only started naming vehicles when I started living in them. The first and largest one was Blue Wing. She was a 36 foot Catalina sloop. Blue Wing came from a song by Tom Russel. It is a bitter sweet song about dreams when you are down and out, dreams that keep you moving forward.
The next vehicle to be named was Blue Wing's dinghy. This dinghy came with the boat and didn't have a name for a while. It was pretty beat up. And then one day I dragged it through some desolate shallows off a lonely island in the Bahamas. This caused even more damage to the poor boat. It was still buoyant but it was more like a floating wading pool. I decided to name it Little Willie John after a character in the sing Blue Wing.
Little Willie John was incarcerated in Walla Walla and the cell mate of the protagonist in the song. Eventually I discovered that that Little Willie John was a real person, a blues singer and song writer.
Little Willie John, the dinghy, finally sunk. It was at a marina in Florida. We came back one morning and found him deflated and his outboard laying on the dock. A couple of sailors helped us bring the outboard back to life but there was no hope for Little Willie John. He was chucked into a dumpster.
We replaced Little Willie John with a Walker Bay. Walker Bays are tiny little plastic rowing dinghies. Some sailors like to prejoratively refer to them as floating butter tubs. But we loved this Walker Bay. As a nod to Little Willie John we named him Fever after the song originally recorded by Little Willie and subsequently made famous by Peggy Lee. Fever was scrappy and solid. We loved rowing him through mangrove trails.
The only drawback to Fever was that he was only a two person boat. We decided to get a dinghy with an inflatable floor that we could store inside Blue Wing for when we had guests. Greg named this one Jethrine. You know the twin sister of Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies. Jethrine was big and fluffy and you never saw her when Jethro was around.
Our first van, a diesel VW Vanagon Westfalia was named Great A'Tuin after the giant turtle who is traveling through the universe to an unknown destination with 3 elephants on its back who hold up the flat planet of Discworld. Discworld is the invention of the late writer Sir Terry Pratchet. Unfortunately Great A'Tuin never took us very far before needing a completely new engine. We decided to let someone else bring Great A'Tuin back to life.
And now we live in Ballena Blanca. She is a large and white cargo van that we converted ourselves. She has taken us all over North America and hopefully one day to destinations further South and over seas. In Spanish her name means white whale.
Thank you for sharing! Your writing is so good! The image of when you “dragged it through some desolate shallows off a lonely island in the Bahamas”---mmmm.
Oh Little Willie John and the Blue Wing. And Fever and Jethrine. And Great A’Tuin, the turtle with three elephants on her back. And of course, Ballena Blanca, my favorite cuz I’ve been in her belly.
I always think of us all, you and Greg and Ruby and Ballena Blanca and me as kindred spirits. These stories are a reminder of such.
Thanks for the shout out Holly!
I really appreciate it.
I also voted in your poll and said I was keen on the essays, but I’m also keen on whatever you feel compelled to write about because I think one of the cool things about engaging with writers is finding out what inspires them, what they feel inclined to write about, what they notice, and then seeing how they write about these things.
Also, this line — “ Bikey McBikerson II makes it clear that my naming skills have aged like fine wine.” — really made me laugh.
It’s hard to give any life tips, but I will say I like going for walks - I feel like they help me slow down and put things in perspective.
Oh, yes. Great life tip. Walking is a wonderful way to clear the head. (Maybe I should reword "life tips" to something less heavy sounding. Day-to-day tips? Moment tips? Tips for what's working now? Ha. I'll workshop it ;). ) Thanks for sharing.
My favorite line of the piece that one.
And you're welcome. Finding writing that makes me feel connected is one of my fav things here on the Stack.
I like - ‘tips for what’s working now’ - that seems to keep it light.
I couldn’t agree more, and thankfully Substack seems to be choc-a-block full of such writing.
Thanks Holly
I am so happy to know I seduced you! I think this is a great post. xxL
Thank you for saying so. :) I enjoyed writing it.