Goodbye Pontiac

I learned to drive in a dark-green '72 Pontiac Catalina.

I'm not crying over the upcoming demise of the Pontiac line; I seriously can't remember the last time I was in a Pontiac.

My dad was in the passenger seat, I had slipped behind the wheel - 15, cocky and nervous, and just exhilerated to actually be behind the wheel.

Of course, I was Awful. I've never been a great driver, but I learned enough to become cautious and careful, thanks to my dad. But boy, that afternoon... yeesh.

The reason that the great green Pontiac Catalina became my car is that there was plenty of metal around me to protect me from pretty much whatever could've hit me (the energy crisis of the mid-70's was still affecting the 80's, therefore, the only thing on the road that was any threat to this green Hulking monstrosity was my buddy Johann's JIINORMOUS blue land yacht, which outweighed it by a half-tonne easily - it could seat five of my more corpulent relatives in the back seat).

What the hell was that huge blue... Chrysler? Well, they might be next.

Anyway, I do think of that old green Pontiac every once in a while. And now that Pontiac's timeline is finalizing, it's unlikely I'll be travelling down that memory lane anytime soon.

Thank goodness I missed that first mailbox. My dad wouldn't have EVER let me live that down.