102. Car NOT For Sale

Would you mind telling me you didn't put in? You won't be angry. I will be angry. That'd be someone. This is the Abbey Normal Podcast, here to tell you that you're weird and that's normal. Do you remember what it was like getting your license or maybe even your first car? We got this awesome pink car with bench seats. How many people can we cram in here? Right? Let's go to the river. For me, a hint of springtime weather, and I can be right back in that feeling.

Cruising in my mom's minivan with the windows down and the music loud. And it was such a relief after trying to get around pre-driver's license, and pre-cell phones for that matter. In this note from eighth grade in 1994, we're just trying to go roller skating for God's sake.

Okay, we really got to figure out this car thing. These are the people that are coming. and she listed 13 people. So we could maybe ask Royce's mom or Matt's dad, let's leave school about 1220, then we'll leave me and Ed's pizza at about 120. Then what time does Rollertown open and close? Trying to find someone to cart your ass around town required multiple notes and begging and tears until finally one of a dozen parents relented.

By sophomore year 1995, we were we're getting closer. Here's another note. Sarah, when are you going to be done with driver's ed? And do you want to tan with me this weekend? I'll call and make an appointment at the Californian. And she replied, I'll try to finish driver's ed soon and get enrolled in driver's training. Also, yes, call and get us tanning appointments. P.S. My brother has chicken pox. Now we know that tanning is bad for you and there's a vaccine for chicken pox.

But for some, the excitement around I'm getting your driver's license is still strong. Others are not so excited, like my 16-year-old, who happily walks to school and vows to stick with the subway as long as possible.

And for other 16-year-olds, getting your license is simply a necessity. So where did you land on that excitement scale? My friend Liz was in the necessity camp, but of course she has her own unique reasons for that because she's weird and normal. I got my driver's license late because I I just wasn't ready. I didn't want to do it. Yeah. I was kind of scared. Wait, did you go to Germany before you got your driver's license? Yeah. So. I know. I mean, yeah, you do hear like how bonkers that sounds.

Like you were too scared to drive, but you will also fly away across the world. Yeah. To go work by yourself. I don't know if it was that I was scared to drive. It was more that I had heard so many nightmare stories about driver's ed. Oh, okay. Like the actual driving test and stuff. Oh, weird. Whatever. I finally did it. and it was fine. It was fine. I invited Liz to talk about the epic car that she got at 17. But that first car is associated with so many memories.

It's a web linked up to our parents and siblings down to new friends and experiences

and out toward freedom and adulthood. So before that pink car was little Liz on her bike and two parents, one doing the most and one doing the best that they were capable of my mom was a teacher at the high school she was a single mom yeah divorced my father alcoholic did not pay for shit not even the mortgage like didn't know they never did any kind of divorce settlement no what is it alimony right no alimony child support for the children. Yeah, no child support.

Okay. No. In fact, when I was a kid, they got divorced when I was 13. When I was in high school, I would say to my mom, like, Mom, I'm gonna go to this thing. Can I have some money? And she would be like, Ask your father. And I would be like, I don't know where he's at. And she would be like, Call Divine Gardens. See if he's in the bar. Oh, my God. Divine Gardens was a bowling alley. And... The adjacent motel. It was like this whole complex. Very well known. Lots of people have memories of it.

And my father was friends with Jack Divinian, who was the owner. And that was his hangout. And when I was a kid, he would take me there and we would bowl together. He taught me how to bowl. And then he would give me money for the pinball machines and the video games. And then he would go in the lounge and drink. And so, yeah, I would literally call the lounge at at the divine gardens bowling alley and be like, hi, is George there?

And they would be like, hold on a second. And they would put them on the phone and I would be like, dad, can I have some money for blah, blah, blah. And he would be like, sure, come and get it. And I would ride my bicycle. Oh my God. Kind of across town. Not like the super length across town, but still kind of across town. Or when I was 16, almost 17, I had a car. So I would drive there. We would actually go to lunch sometimes when he was, I would go pick him up

from work and we would go to lunch together. Yeah. I was trying to make an effort, but yeah. Liz doesn't know how her mom paid for anything for three kids, much less the car that will come into her life shortly. I don't know what she did. After she bucked up and got her license, the real driving lessons began. My brother is the one that ultimately really taught me really how to drive. Right.

Smartly. I mean, you have to have a family member that's going to teach you. Yeah. I mean, my sister taught me, my mom taught me, but my real education was later with my brother. because my brother was super into cars, fixing them, driving them. He was into muscle cars. He was like, he knew all the little hot tips and things. Like, here's the smart way to drive. Here's where you can push it and where you can't. You know, not like the paranoid mom teaching you how to drive.

Totally, yeah. I feel like the paranoid mom is not the one that should teach someone how to drive. Exactly.

Aaron and I were laughing because his new car is manual okay right it's super fun and i'm like i bet kids now like do not, learn how to drive a manual no no one knows how to do that right it's like gonna be a lost skill, mine's manual too it's really fun my next car is gonna be electric so i won't have that anymore i'm gonna be right but i'll know how to do it right exactly and i feel like zombie apocalypse you need to know how to drive a manual car i try to tell everybody

i know like my nieces you gotta learn that shit yeah because there might be some wacky emergency where you're

the only one that can drive and if you can't figure out a stick shift you're fucked right yeah yeah or people who don't have a driver's license who don't know how to drive you have to learn how to drive you need to know how to drive you do even if you don't want to drive a car you have to learn how that's right yeah, I also feel like, though, that you should learn when you're younger. Yeah, I agree. Because you just get scared the longer that you are alive on this earth.

You know too many things. The fear builds. The anxiety builds. Yes. Learn when you're young. Yes. That's true. You have to have that, like, not a care in the world kind of mentality. Yeah. Haven't seen the worst of things kind of stuff. Right. Music. Um the car story this is an interesting story i'm gonna back up for a second when i was 12 11

sorry my mother took me to her high school reunion in nampa idaho adorable my parents were definitely on the rocks at that time and my mom reconnected with her junior high slash high school sweetheart. Oh my god. His name was J. Dean. They reconnected after so many years. But to Liz's knowledge, nothing happened. Remember, it's another whole year till her parents get divorced. And then years later, when I was, I think it was 15, we went on a ski trip.

To Bogus Basin, which is this cute little ski resort just outside of Boise, Idaho, that has night skiing. Fun. Yeah. Fun and also really scary, depending on the weather. And we ran into him on the slopes. And they rekindled this thing. Did she know he was going to be at the ski resort? No, it was totally random. No. Yeah. In fact, we ran into him at night, night skiing. Not day skiing, but night skiing.

Like the most romantic time you could run in so weird okay i don't know where this story is going but i need to know like were they happy was it true love oh yeah it was always true love so they were in love back in the day when they were kids when they were in seventh grade he sat behind her in math class and used to pull on her pigtails she had like she would wear braids yeah yes they dated in high school the whole

shebang they didn't get married because my mother was catholic and And his parents were Nazarene. If you know anything about Nazarene. I mean, those two things seem close enough to me. Nazarene. Nazarene. No, Nazarene is like, you don't marry anybody outside the church. Drinking is evil. Dancing is evil. Right. So it's like Southern Baptist. It's like, not so. Oh, they also, I think, speak in tongues a little bit, which is weird. Okay. All right. But anyway, so my mom went to college.

He went to dental school. But before he went to dental school, he also went to college. He could have been a professional athlete in three sports. He was recruited to the Yankees and went for like...

Off-season you know but because he was so fucking religious he could not handle the lifestyle of the other players so he said fuck it and got out and then they tried to recruit him again the yankees again and he said no his parents are like you can't you can't do that and so he went to dental school and became a dentist. Yeah. That was the level of religiosity that he abided by in college. But now they're seasoned adults who make their own choices.

And they got married when I was 16. Yeah. My sister and I were the bridesmaids. Oh my God. Yeah. This is the moment in Liz's family family history when the car becomes necessary.

She's almost 17, end of her junior year. And my mother was like, I'm going to move to Idaho. Oh, my God. And I'm going to leave you here with your sister. What? Yeah. My sister's nine years older than me. So she was 25 at the time, living at home, working. Like care for you. Working. I mean, kind of. But still, damn. And my mother offered to buy me a car. The first car I had my eye on was one of those late 60s Volvos. Hell yeah. Yeah.

But for some reason, that didn't work out. And then somehow I saw this car, this pink car tootling around town with a for sale sign in it. Oh my God. And it was a 1960 Rambler, AMC Rambler American. Oh.

Deluxe, American Deluxe, the four-door. and because my mother grew up in the 40s and 50s she also loved cars and she was super into it and she bought me this 1960 not only a stick shift but a three on the tree right right no power steering not even rack and pinion steering so as you their giant steering wheel and as you're driving your steering wheel is just jiggling and every time you make a turn and it takes like all the muscle in your body to like, yeah.

So she had to teach me how to drive this damn car. Right, right. Which was a tank. So awesome though. Yeah. That summer, I remember I went to Idaho for like three weeks or something. And my best friend at the time flew out and stayed for a while. My mother made me go to Idaho. She's like, I'm leaving you at the beginning of your senior year. And so why didn't homeboy move out with you guys?

Because he was a practicing dentist and he could not move his dental practice and he was not ready to retire.

Okay i mean i'll i'll it's a little weird but at the same time it's like that's where the money came from so my mom was a fucking teacher she had a pension so there's that's great but but she also moved to idaho and and got a job like in the career counseling office at caldwell high school which is in caldwell which is right outside of boise see wait did they graduate from no they graduated from nampa high make you go with her because it was my last year of high

school and you would not have not have been happy she didn't want to destroy she didn't want to take me away from all my friends i was an athlete right and you'd been like in that town like in that school all my life right the whole time all my life okay i didn't want to go to fucking idaho so after the idaho visit that was it it was just her and the rambler and a 25 year old sister there just in case.

I had this car and I just drove around, all my friends around in this car that summer on my own. Like my sister didn't care that much. She only cared when we were all at the house making noise and she was trying to go to sleep. Sure. So you were just rambling about the town. Rambling about, yeah. Music. You know i never did anything bad my a bunch of my friends did but like i was just sort of like you got this awesome pink

car with bench seats how many people can we cram in here right.

Let's go to the river it's so weird it's amazing so weird i had no job like no i did too that was the summer that i tutored and that was really awkward why it was just awkward i didn't know what i was doing and i didn't really have like a vibe with children i don't think at least not children i I at least children I didn't know that was just weird yeah but but I did it and so yeah I went through my entire senior year all by myself but I got to drive to school and I

graduated you did and then went. To junior college at Modesto New College so yeah so yeah 16 yeah yeah felt

like the height of things to some degree i mean there are the interesting thing about like 16 17 is like everything is new right like yeah driving a car is brand new yeah doing something just you and your friends brand new going to the lake like by yourself brand new yeah watching the sunset at the the light like yeah and the feelings that come with that right like just everything's beautiful and amazing and music and shit like right yeah so those memories are like so

burned into your brain yeah I think like because we've listened to tons of good music since we were 16 totally we've seen so many sunsets yeah but those first ones yeah burned in there man oh my god. Music. When I was 16, we had this nightclub. No, I was 15.

These guys from my best friend's church, New Life Church, opened like a teenage nightclub called Wannabes on the west side of town. Wannabes was the place you want to be. That was their slogan. Oh, my God. And oh, my God, we had nothing else to do. And so all of the goth kids from all over the county.

Medesto merced ripping patterson all these fucking tiny ass shit towns were going to wannabes on friday night and saturday night and the musical was great i met people that i might not never have met like my best friend mark oh my god those were the days man we would get all all dressed up and like go to wannabes and that was great when that place closed it was really sad but um that's really cute yeah then we had to really scratch and scrape yeah there were some

things that happened in modesto but like sometimes you had to be 18 to get in right wannabes actually you had to be 16 to get in but because tanya tanya was a year older than me so she was already 16 i I was still 15. She knew the guys that owned it. And so they would let me in. Right, right, right. But like, I know how to line dance, even though I've never, ever liked country music. But in Fresno, there was so little to do with teenagers that I could get into the line dancing place.

You know, it was like all ages or whatever. So I could go there and dance. And it was a thing. Yeah. I mean, what did we have? We had the movie theater we had orchards yes fuck yes do you know Tanya and I used to do oh my god me and Tanya and. Leanne, sometimes my friend Leanne, we would go through our closets and get all of our hats and our scarves and our this and our that. And we would go out into the orchard and we would do photo shoots.

That's amazing. Because both Leanne and I were super into photography, so we both had cameras. Right. And oh my God, the fun we had. We should do that. I would do that. We should do that. Oh my God, that would be hilarious.

That would be hilarious. there was the drive-in did you guys have a drive-in you know i don't think we did anymore oh i did see star wars for the first time at the drive-in yeah with my dad that was pretty epic yeah because we would just like load up so many people and go to the drive-in oh well we had the roller rink in modesto the roller rink yeah yes but you had to drive to modesto so you had a car, 15 minutes up the freeway yeah the river people's houses right a lot of a lot

of teenagers that I went to high school with like a lot of my friends who are were not in my core friend group but I've known them all since first grade because we all went to the same fucking schools the whole time right a lot of those friends, were more like the normie jockey in those circles they went to parties yeah but I never went to the parties because I was like no, all these people are just getting wasted. Like, where's the fun in that? It didn't feel fun to me.

And there was always the risk of the cops showing up because the cops in Turlock were really bored. Totally. And so, I mean, I think we spent, like my senior year, especially alone, we spent a lot of nights like playing cards around my kitchen table. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Laughing. Yeah, I need to bring the kid down to have a conversation with them about this. But like so many of my notes from middle school and high school are like planning

those activities, right? Like what are we doing this weekend? Like, you know, come over to my house at this time and then we'll go to this party or we'll go let's go roller skating on Saturday. And so you let this person know and I'll let this person know. And there was no cell phones to like organize all of this. Right. So it happened via note and then maybe like actual landline phone call.

And then if somebody couldn't go they didn't have any way of like letting you know that right you just be like well jimmy didn't show up here today yeah something happened did he get in trouble is he grounded totally yeah so much energy went into planning those activities yeah that's true and i'm not sure i don't know i can't write it i don't i can only like see from my own 16 yeah viewpoint yeah but there's not a whole lot of that like planning activity kind of that was kind of like

like epic level activities. Yeah, that's true. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I did a lot of roller skating too. Yeah. There was a lot of roller skate meetups. A lot of just doing nothing. Yeah. Walking around town at night. A lot of walking around the town.

Doing stupid things. Yeah. Music. There and there was this road that just was like a eventually a country road like it's paved and everything but nobody was ever driving on it and it would get hilly and so we would just go park right at the top of the hill in the middle of the road yes so dumb yeah but yeah just and look at the stars or whatever yeah just right we would drive out and look on the country roads and park and look at whatever and fuck around. Yeah.

Or did you guys cruise at all? A little bit in high school. Yeah. A little bit of cruising. Yeah. On Main Street and Turlock. Definitely. We would blast like, I remember one time we went in Kara's car, this girl Kara. And she was blasting. Visage. Fade to gray. Uh-huh. Kind of gothy, like new romantic-y style. And we would blast that, you know, and there's all these guys in like lowriders. Right, right. Yep. It was like you either had a lowrider and in Fresno they had like the lift.

Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't remember what you call that. Or you had like a truck, like a race truck. Oh, hell yes. Those were like your two options. Yeah. Yeah. And we were in this like fancy minivan or did those even exist then? I think it was a minivan or it might even have been an SUV back then. Her parents were rich. Okay. With tinted windows, I remember, too. Yeah. Yeah. That's fancy. But you could pile a bunch of people in there and it would be like, you know, blasting our goth music.

I got a car like my senior year. But before that, I drove around in my mom's minivan. And minivans are kind of the shit. You can like fit so many people in there. Yeah. Door just like yeah pile in pile in pile in. Music. That was her senior year. Goth photo shoots in the orchard and a lot of boredom.

But I had a cool car to drive around in. Did your sister resent having to take care of you? I think my sister resented that I was the youngest and was given much more leeway than she was. Yeah, you said eight years. That's a big gap. She was born in 1962. Yeah, yeah. So your mom changed a lot in that time period. Yeah, she had to. Yeah. She had to. My whole childhood was the women's revolution and feminism.

And yeah, my mom used to be liberal. And then she married my stepfather. And then she was not. He was super right-wing. Your stepfather from Idaho. Super religious guy. He was lovely, don't get me wrong. We did so many great things with him. That's good. Couldn't begrudge her her happiness, though. No. And she did great things. She got a master's, too. Really? Yeah, she got a master's in counseling. And she worked as a school counselor for many years. Music.

That's the story of the car. That wasn't just a car. It marked the beginning of a new love story for Liz's mom and was a delineation of Liz's life between that little kid biking to the bar and an independent young woman cruising the country roads.

Music. What happened to the Rambler? So I texted her and I thought this would be a straightforward question, but it was not because the legend of the Rambler continued. So I gave her a call. Hello. Oh my gosh, you answered. Yeah. Are you trying to tell me that it's the Rambler that was was in your driveway? The Rambler from the story. That's still in the driveway. The Rambler is in her driveway, but that is so not the most interesting part.

Okay, I'm pushing record right now and you're going to tell me the story.

Do you have time? You want to do it right now? Right f***ing now. Are you available? I am such a bad friend. Liz is home sick with COVID, but I need you to hear right now how it came to be in the driveway. And it has to do again with my dad and his crazy ass sisters. After my mom married Jay and moved away and I went off to college, the house was sitting there empty.

My mom couldn't really decide what to do with it and so one day randomly out of nowhere my aunt millie called her up and essentially threatened to sue her if my mom didn't sell her half of the house to my dad because he didn't have a place to live like a good place to live and so essentially, she bullied my mom out of her half of the house even though my mom paid the house payment for many years after that without my dad's help and they proceeded to come in and clear out the house of all of

our stuff and said come get your shit and towed the rambler to a towing lot lot I was like what the actual fuck and I didn't know what happened to the car no one ever really told me and so eventually my brother was like oh dad's been paying the fees for it to sit in this towing lot and my brother sweet as he was lived in San Jose at the time went and picked it up and and towed it to my house in Richmond. Oh, my God.

And so it sat in my driveway in East Richmond Heights for a few years, and there were weeds growing all the way through the engine compartment, and it had two flat tires on one side. That's like breaking my heart.

It was really sad. It was such a beautiful car, too. too. She didn't have money or time to deal with it, and AMC parts are difficult to find. But maybe salvation is on the way. One day, I came home and my roommate, Dina, was like, hey, somebody left this note. It was just like this note in this horrible scrawl. And it was like, do you want to sell this car? I was like, hell no, I don't want to sell this car. But my landlord had started telling me that the neighbors were complaining about it.

That it was an eyesore, which I think was a total lie. He just thought it was an eyesore. so I get the note and I look at the handwriting I'm like well it's Richmond this could be any crazy person so I just ignored it and then this guy came and knocked on the door and my roommate was home and I was not and so she told she was like this guy knocked on the door and wants to know if you want to sell the car and I was like yeah and then I ignored that too and then.

Two days before christmas i had stayed home sick and i was asleep on the couch and oh man did i look a wreck i was like in my pajamas and i had a short haircut and my hair was standing on end, there's a knock at the door i was like i walked to the door and you never know who's knocking on your door in richmond that you know in in the dark in the evening and so i was like who is it, There's this little voice on the other side of the door that's like, um, it's about the car. And I was like, ugh.

So I opened the little window and I looked at this guy and I was like, eh, he looks kind of harmless. And I opened the door and I was like, yeah. And he was like, I don't know. I wonder if you want to sell that car. And I was like, actually, why don't you come in? So I invited this total stranger into my home. But he was cute. He had like little peg pants and Converse high top and like a mechanics jacket and a beanie. And I was like, oh, there's cool people in my neighborhood?

Because he was like, oh, yeah, I just live, you know, around the corner and up the street. And I was like, oh. We started talking and he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm in a...

I was in a band. I'm in a ska band. And I was like, oh, I like ska. But yeah, my band lives right up the street. And anyway, the car, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, look, that thing has not been looked at in a million years. My brother is the one that used to fix it. I'm going to his house for Christmas. I will find out what he remembers is wrong with it. I'll get back to you when I get back. And he was like, yeah, okay.

She went home for Christmas, talked to her brother, and intended to call the guy and give him the deets. I went to pick up the phone, and my hand was literally hovering over the phone, and it rang. And I picked it up, and it was Jimmy, the car guy, the guy that wants to buy my Rambler. I was like, whoa, that's weird. I was just picking up the phone to call you. I was like, well, I kind of got the suit for my brother, and he was like,

I want to come over and make you an offer. And I was like, okay. okay. He came over and he said, what did he offer me? Like 300 bucks. And I was like, my brother told me not to take less than five. So it's going to be 500 bucks. And he was like, okay, here's 300 now. I'll get you the 200 tomorrow. And I was like, okay, I know where you live. Like chill out.

He was so like giddy. And then he was like, Hey, uh, so my roommates Nice and I are going to go down to the Mallard and have some drinks if you want to join us. And I was like, yeah, okay, that'd be fun. And I was like, but I need to change and shower and stuff. He's like, okay, I'll come pick you up later. And I was like, okay. They went for drinks and she saw his house around the corner, met his weird and entertaining roommates, played some pool.

He promptly gave her that last 200 bucks. And the Rambler was his. Music. And then it was like, well, I'll get the car out of your driveway ASAP. I'll tow it away. And I was like, dude, it's been sitting there forever. If you want to work on it in the driveway, you're welcome to. Yeah, yeah. It was the week between Christmas and New Year's, so Liz was off work. And every day, Jimmy and his pals would come over and work on the Rambler.

So I was home every day and I made these numples like coffee and pancakes. I don't know what came over me, but...

Christmas of 1999. They got the Rambler running. You and Jimmy have now been together for like 25 years. Yeah. I can't believe that's right. He loves to joke that he got a car and a girl for 500 bucks.

It's a pretty good deal. Music. And where is the Rambler? It's in our driveway right now. It was his daily driver for many years. It was! I love it! Many years, he drove that thing to the city for work every day. Oh, yay. Yeah. Yeah. She needs some love and attention. Yeah. Yeah. Are you accepting offers? No. No. It's your baby. The car is not for sale. The car is not for sale. Music. The Jiggler. Yeah, it has many nicknames. My sister called it La Bamba.

My brother called it the Pregnant Roller Skate. Music.