A Story About My Grandma

"CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever" (carsoffortlangley) 10/17/2019 at 00:07 • Filed to: None

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! reminded me of this, and I thought I’d share.

My grandma is now 90. She started driving in her 40's after she suddenly became a single parent to my mom and aunt. My Grandma’s first car was a 1980's grey Toyota Corolla, new off the lot . She drove it until she crashed it a few years ago.

Her replacement was a mid 2000's Pontiac Wave. Keep in mind this was her second car ever and I honestly don’t know if she ever drove any other cars than her Corolla.

The first day she has it, she took it back to the dealership with a simple request “make it less peppy”. Unfortunately , this was a request the dealer wasn’t able to fulfill. She was not sure about driving this BEAST of a car, but eventually got used to it.

Recently, she rear ended someone and decided she was done driving, but she loved her two little cars.

DipodomysDeserti > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 00:13

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“Make this less peppy”

-removes a spark plug.

wafflesnfalafel > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 00:18

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M y wife’s grandmother’s last car was a white 4door K-car - she didn’t feel safe/comfortable driving it in city traffic after she moved up to Seattle from high desert Cali   to live with her son and daughter and stopped driving.

Future Heap Owner > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 00:40

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Good on her for voluntarily giving up driving, even if it took an accident. My remaining grandmother (my mom’s mom) is 88, and hasn’t had any accidents yet, but has taken a mirror off pulling out of the garage and has admitted to spacing out and missing freeway exits. My mom and her siblings are trying to convince her to move in to an assisted living facility (where she wouldn’t really need to drive), but she’s not keen on it.

Grindintosecond > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 01:00

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My grandpa quit driving at 93, after he felt he was boxed  in at a wall Mart lot and decided to ram his way out.....

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 01:17

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My dad told me once of an elderly woman who drove her husband’s car after he passed. He had a chrysler concorde from the late 90s. Mint condition, or at least as mint as you can get for a 10 year old concorde with les than 30k on the odometer;   but the discs and pads were toast. And the transmission was shifting weird. Turns out, she drove it with one foot on the brake at all times and was always applying a little bit of brake because she claimed it was uncontrollable otherwise....

I had already gone off to college by this point because I probably would’ve made an offer on it after she said that.

Nick Has an Exocet > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 01:24

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My grandma handed me down a 1987.5 base (with automatic trans ) Ford Escort. If I remember correctly, it was the first and only car she ever bought. It was kind of her middle finger to the world and her separation from my soon-to-be-deceased alcoholic grandfather. Speaking of middle fingers, on my favorite memories of my grandmother was my grandmother, who was about as even tempered as they get, driving me and my brother home from the local lake. Someone cut her off and gave her the finger, so she gave it right back and said “well screw you too, lady!”. I really do miss that car but rust and bad transmission took it away. Despite the fact that she smoked about 2 packs/day, she never smoked in the car. That’s a good thing too since it had a rust hole in the gas tank.

This is roughly what it looked like. Plus it had those awful automatic seatbelts.

shop-teacher > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 07:08

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Good for her! I really respect her decision to give up driving voluntarily. My grand parents fought it tooth and nail. That was not a fun experience.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Grindintosecond 10/17/2019 at 08:22

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In Grand pa’s defense, haven’t all of us wanted to do that in a Walmart parking lot?

gmctavish needs more space > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/17/2019 at 11:28

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My dad tells the story of how his grandma got a ‘55 Chevy with a V8, after driving something older with a 6 cylinder before. This resulted in:  “Grandma, you’re doing 90 again” “Oh this darn car is just too smooth, can’t tell how fast I’m going” or something along those lines

Grindintosecond > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! 10/17/2019 at 12:15

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YUP! I’m wondering if it was more about him just not giving a shit anymore.