by Elle Kamino

Created on: June 13, 2008   Last Updated: November 07, 2008

I was eight years old when I saw what would become my lifelong passion. I'm sure it wasn't the first time I had ever crossed paths with an El Camino but it was the first time I had taken complete notice of every element, every contour and every sound that compiled this this, whatever it was driving past me. I was awestruck instantly and even now, 27 years later, I can still remember my dad and his exact words when I asked him about it. He shook his head and he said with a sigh, " Well, it's an El Camino, Kiddo, but I just don't get them." He went on to say, " I figure if you want a car you should get a car and if you want a truck then you should get a truck but why in the world would anybody want such an ugly in-between?"

The reactions both my dad and I had over that El Camino are still pretty much the reactions people have over them today. Folks either love them or they hate them and there really seems to be no feelings between the two extremes. I am one of those who fell in love with them; every year, every body style and through every change they ever endured. I love and respect every E Camino ever produced.

I now own my very own 1978 Chevrolet El Camino and everywhere I go in it there are people who rush over to drool just as there are people who laugh and shake their heads. You know what? I don't care what anyone else thinks of the dream safely tucked inside my garage. All that matters is the fact that when I am rumbling down the road in my car or, perhaps my truck, with the windows down on a beautiful, sunshiny day I feel alive and as though anything is possible.

The day I slipped the keys to my dream car onto the key-chain I had purchased four years earlier was a day I will never forget. For four long years that tiny, work glove key-chain had waited in a zip lock bag, in my bedside table for the day its keys would come and finally, they did. That key-chain had called out to me the moment I saw it because in its own silly little way it brought my dads "in-between" concerns to a perfectly balanced place. My key-chain is a miniature work glove and I think it's adorable; the keys it holds are for one adorably, sweet-riding car that is not afraid to work like a truck!

My dad never did stop teasing me about my love of El Camino's but at the same time he teased, he did everything to encourage my unfaltering devotion. Countless times he went out of his way to detour past the few driveways that held my dream and even as he poked fun I saw the pride that sparkled through his eyes. He was proud that I refused to give in; proud that I followed my own heart in choosing my own loves even if it had to be a love for those "ugly in-betweens."

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