by Janeal Mulaney

Created on: January 05, 2009

Our First New Car

My husband and I had been married for a little over ten years when my car of fourteen years had started to leak oil. My husband had always bought second hand pickups, and worked on them before they started to run we had three of them in back yard, along with the one he drove. With summer coming up and a long vacation, we decided my car either had to be fixed or another one bought.

One day while coming home from my job I saw a beautiful new Mustang being unloaded at our local dealership, so I pulled in to ask about the price and of course a test drive.

I drove it home loaded up my three kids, so my mom could go home, and went to see my husband at his work. When I showed him the new car that we would soon have he smiled in that husband's indulging way, and said don't get your hopes up sweetheart, we would have to have the payments way under what they are willing to price it at, for us to be able to afford a sports car.

I went to our bank and walked out with a loan, then back to the dealership and haggled them down to the price I wanted. My husband smiled, when he saw the car setting in our driveway. The first words out of his mouth were, "that car will never look like you other car!"

Here I need to take a short break, and explain. My other car was purchased when I was eighteen, three months before I graduated high school. It rained basically everyday for a week right after I received it. The first time I went to get insurance on it, as I was leaving the office, and a semi truck backup into me. Two months later, the one wreck that was my fault happened, I ran into another car making a turn, I was tailgating. Someone hit the passenger door in the Kmart parking lot, but they didn't leave a name or number. A sixteen year old ran a stoplight, turned and ran over the front end of my car. Yes it was beat up after fourteen years of use and wear.

I just smiled at my husband, and said. "Here are the keys put it in the garage, and then throw out the key to the garage. That is the only way it will stay dent free. A car is to be driven and used, the most you can hope for is when it needs fixed; it won't cost you a mint." Then for three months after that, with him washing and waxing the new mustang every weekend. I prayed that the first scratch or dent that was put in the car would be at my husband's hand.

My prayers were answered, one Saturday he was out in the garage, and decided he needed to rearrange the video games we had out there. Of course he had just washed and waxed the car, and parked it outside on the driveway. He had left the doors open and was moving everything out onto the other half of the drive when he got too close to the new car with one of the games strapped to the dolly. He scratched the fender and broke out the left-hand-blinker and headlight. Prayers are answered.

My wonderful husband came into the house, and told me, I needed to come out to the garage. He had something to show me, my oldest son was running back out the door, saying look mama look at what daddy did. I looked at the damage, and said, "I guess we need a new light and blinker, there's some touched up paint in the glove box that will fill in the scratch." With that said, I started back to the house with a smile on my face; he followed.

"That's all your going to say?" He asked.

"Yeah, what else is there to say? You kept the key to the garage an accident was bound to happen sooner or later, a used car gets scratches and dents, if not worse."

My youngest son rolled that mustang ten years to the day it was purchased, I'm still glad he walked away with two small scratches, and the car was all that was totaled.

Prayers are answered.

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