If I learned anything from my dad, it was a love for cars - all types. When we would drive together, he would always point out cool cars and tell me some interesting fact or tidbit he knew about it. I remember one Sunday, when I was really young, he took me up to the Concours d'Elegance car show at the University of Utah. I had no idea what it was, but I remembered the cool posters from past car shows my dad had hung up in our garage. Plus, I got out of going to church, so life was good.
Anyway, that love of cars stuck with me as I grew older and could finally work on them with my dad. We rented out a double storage unit and converted it into an auto shop. It was somewhere we could go to hang out and get away from the girls. It was definitely a man zone - we'd work on cars and get greasy, then stop for dinner and eat with greasy hands. We didn't care, we were men!
My dad and I would go there often just to spend time together. We would work on cars, but, more importantly, it gave us a chance to talk and really know each other during my teenage years when it's so easy to drift apart. It was there that we talked about high school and its ups and downs. It was there that he prodded me for details about my first kiss. It was there that we talked about college and my future and girls and dating and love and cars and people we hate and people we love and how can I listen to crappy music nowadays and how hot Kate Beckinsale was and how hot Olivia Newton John wasn't (much to my father's shagrin). I took girlfriends there, I spent time alone there, I studied for AP exams there.
It was a special place and I miss it. And I miss him.
No comments:
Post a Comment