New Car

The other day, while driving my new car along in cruise control, I got to thinking about the first car I owned in high school: A Ford Mustang. 

The heater didn’t work very well in the Mustang and the windows fogged-up and frosted on the inside throughout the winter.   No air conditioning.  Crank windows.  I had to shift the manual transmission by reaching through the floor and pulling and pushing on linkage rods on the transmission because the shifter had broken.  I kept rain and snow from spraying up from the road by placing my 8-track tape case over the hole in the floor.  The rear-wheel drive found me stuck in snow often.

My new car will make phone calls, if I ask.  My iPod plays automatically on shuffle.  I can set the passenger side for one temperature and my side for another.  Sun roof.  Heated and cooled seats.  Driver alerts.  All-wheel drive.  Electric windows.   

 I think fondly of my old Mustang, but only for short periods of time.

—Mitchell Hegman