0:00

Would you mind telling me you didn't put in? You won't be angry.

0:03

I will be angry. That'd be someone.

0:07

This is the Abbey Normal Podcast, here to tell you that you're weird and that's normal.

0:16

Do you remember what it was like getting your license or maybe even your first car?

0:21

We got this awesome pink car with bench seats. How many people can we cram in

0:25

here? Right? Let's go to the river. For me, a hint of springtime weather, and I can be right back in that feeling.

0:32

Cruising in my mom's minivan with the windows down and the music loud.

0:39

And it was such a relief after trying to get around pre-driver's license,

0:43

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.

0:51

Okay, we really got to figure out this car thing. These are the people that

0:54

are coming. and she listed 13 people.

0:57

So we could maybe ask Royce's mom or Matt's dad, let's leave school about 1220,

1:02

then we'll leave me and Ed's pizza at about 120. Then what time does Rollertown open and close?

1:10

Trying to find someone to cart your ass around town required multiple notes

1:13

and begging and tears until finally one of a dozen parents relented.

1:17

By sophomore year 1995, we were we're getting closer. Here's another note.

1:23

Sarah, when are you going to be done with driver's ed? And do you want to tan

1:26

with me this weekend? I'll call and make an appointment at the Californian.

1:31

And she replied, I'll try to finish driver's ed soon and get enrolled in driver's

1:36

training. Also, yes, call and get us tanning appointments.

1:38

P.S. My brother has chicken pox. Now we know that tanning is bad for you and there's a vaccine for chicken pox.

1:45

But for some, the excitement around I'm getting your driver's license is still strong.

1:49

Others are not so excited, like my 16-year-old, who happily walks to school

1:54

and vows to stick with the subway as long as possible.

1:58

And for other 16-year-olds, getting your license is simply a necessity.

2:03

So where did you land on that excitement scale? My friend Liz was in the necessity

2:08

camp, but of course she has her own unique reasons for that because she's weird and normal.

2:13

I got my driver's license late because I I just wasn't ready.

2:17

I didn't want to do it. Yeah. I was kind of scared.

2:21

Wait, did you go to Germany before you got your driver's license? Yeah. So.

2:27

I know. I mean, yeah, you do hear like how bonkers that sounds.

2:31

Like you were too scared to drive, but you will also fly away across the world.

2:35

Yeah. To go work by yourself. I don't know if it was that I was scared to drive.

2:39

It was more that I had heard so many nightmare stories about driver's ed.

2:43

Oh, okay. Like the actual driving test and stuff. Oh, weird.

2:47

Whatever. I finally did it. and it was fine. It was fine.

2:54

I invited Liz to talk about the epic car that she got at 17.

2:58

But that first car is associated with so many memories.

3:02

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

3:07

and out toward freedom and adulthood.

3:10

So before that pink car was little Liz on her bike and two parents,

3:15

one doing the most and one doing the best

3:18

that they were capable of my mom was

3:21

a teacher at the high school she was a

3:24

single mom yeah divorced my father

3:28

alcoholic did not pay for shit not even the mortgage like didn't know they never

3:35

did any kind of divorce settlement no what is it alimony right no alimony child

3:42

support for the children. Yeah, no child support.

3:45

Okay. No. In fact, when I was a kid, they got divorced when I was 13.

3:50

When I was in high school, I would say to my mom, like, Mom,

3:55

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,

4:00

I don't know where he's at. And she would be like, Call Divine Gardens.

4:05

See if he's in the bar. Oh, my God. Divine Gardens was a bowling alley. And...

4:11

The adjacent motel. It was like this whole complex. Very well known.

4:16

Lots of people have memories of it. And my father was friends with Jack Divinian, who was the owner.

4:23

And that was his hangout. And when I was a kid, he would take me there and we

4:28

would bowl together. He taught me how to bowl. And then he would give me money for the pinball machines and the video games.

4:35

And then he would go in the lounge and drink. And so, yeah, I would literally

4:39

call the lounge at at the divine gardens bowling alley and be like, hi, is George there?

4:46

And they would be like, hold on a second. And they would put them on the phone

4:49

and I would be like, dad, can I have some money for blah, blah, blah.

4:53

And he would be like, sure, come and get it.

4:55

And I would ride my bicycle. Oh my God.

4:59

Kind of across town. Not like the super length across town, but still kind of across town.

5:04

Or when I was 16, almost 17, I had a car. So I would drive there.

5:08

We would actually go to lunch sometimes when he was, I would go pick him up

5:12

from work and we would go to lunch together. Yeah. I was trying to make an effort, but yeah.

5:20

Liz doesn't know how her mom paid for anything for three kids,

5:23

much less the car that will come into her life shortly. I don't know what she did.

5:29

After she bucked up and got her license, the real driving lessons began.

5:34

My brother is the one that ultimately really taught me really how to drive. Right.

5:42

Smartly. I mean, you have to have a family member that's going to teach you. Yeah.

5:48

I mean, my sister taught me, my mom taught me, but my real education was later

5:54

with my brother. because my brother was super into cars, fixing them,

5:59

driving them. He was into muscle cars. He was like, he knew all the little hot tips and things.

6:07

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

6:16

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

6:20

someone how to drive. Exactly. Aaron and I were laughing because his new car is manual okay right it's super

6:28

fun and i'm like i bet kids now like do not,

6:33

learn how to drive a manual no no one knows how to do that right it's like gonna be a lost skill,

6:38

mine's manual too it's really fun my next car is gonna

6:41

be electric so i won't have that anymore i'm gonna be right but i'll

6:46

know how to do it right exactly and i feel like zombie apocalypse

6:49

you need to know how to drive a manual car i try to tell everybody

6:52

i know like my nieces you gotta

6:55

learn that shit yeah because there might be some wacky emergency where you're

6:59

the only one that can drive and if you can't figure out a stick shift you're

7:02

fucked right yeah yeah or people who don't have a driver's license who don't

7:06

know how to drive you have to learn how to drive you need to know how to drive

7:10

you do even if you don't want to drive a car you have to learn how that's right yeah,

7:16

I also feel like, though, that you should learn when you're younger.

7:19

Yeah, I agree. Because you just get scared the longer that you are alive on this earth.

7:24

You know too many things. The fear builds. The anxiety builds.

7:28

Yes. Learn when you're young. Yes. That's true. You have to have that,

7:32

like, not a care in the world kind of mentality.

7:36

Yeah. Haven't seen the worst of things kind of stuff. Right.

7:40

Music.

7:48

Um the car story this is an interesting story

7:51

i'm gonna back up for a second when i was 12 11

7:55

sorry my mother took me to her high school reunion in nampa idaho adorable my

8:02

parents were definitely on the rocks at that time and my mom reconnected with

8:10

her junior high slash high school sweetheart.

8:14

Oh my god. His name was J. Dean.

8:21

They reconnected after so many years. But to Liz's knowledge, nothing happened.

8:27

Remember, it's another whole year till her parents get divorced.

8:31

And then years later, when I was, I think it was 15, we went on a ski trip.

8:39

To Bogus Basin, which is this cute little ski resort just outside of Boise,

8:45

Idaho, that has night skiing. Fun. Yeah. Fun and also really scary, depending on the weather.

8:54

And we ran into him on the slopes. And they rekindled this thing.

9:00

Did she know he was going to be at the ski resort? No, it was totally random. No.

9:05

Yeah. In fact, we ran into him at night, night skiing. Not day skiing, but night skiing.

9:09

Like the most romantic time you could run in so weird

9:12

okay i don't know where this story is going but i

9:14

need to know like were they happy was it true love

9:18

oh yeah it was always true love so

9:21

they were in love back in the day when they were kids when they were in

9:23

seventh grade he sat behind her in math class and used to pull on her pigtails

9:27

she had like she would wear braids yeah yes they dated in high school the whole

9:32

shebang they didn't get married because my mother was catholic and And his parents were Nazarene.

9:41

If you know anything about Nazarene. I mean, those two things seem close enough to me.

9:46

Nazarene. Nazarene. No, Nazarene is like, you don't marry anybody outside the church.

9:51

Drinking is evil. Dancing is evil. Right. So it's like Southern Baptist.

9:57

It's like, not so. Oh, they also, I think, speak in tongues a little bit,

10:01

which is weird. Okay. All right. But anyway, so my mom went to college.

10:05

He went to dental school. But before he went to dental school, he also went to college.

10:10

He could have been a professional athlete in three sports.

10:16

He was recruited to the Yankees and went for like...

10:22

Off-season you know but because

10:26

he was so fucking religious he could

10:29

not handle the lifestyle of the other players so he said fuck it and got out

10:34

and then they tried to recruit him again the yankees again and he said no his

10:42

parents are like you can't you can't do that and so he went to dental school and became a dentist.

10:49

Yeah. That was the level of religiosity that he abided by in college.

10:55

But now they're seasoned adults who make their own choices.

10:59

And they got married when I was 16. Yeah. My sister and I were the bridesmaids. Oh my God. Yeah.

11:08

This is the moment in Liz's family family history when the car becomes necessary.

11:12

She's almost 17, end of her junior year.

11:16

And my mother was like, I'm going to move to Idaho.

11:20

Oh, my God. And I'm going to leave you here with your sister. What?

11:23

Yeah. My sister's nine years older than me. So she was 25 at the time,

11:29

living at home, working. Like care for you. Working. I mean, kind of. But still, damn.

11:36

And my mother offered to buy me a car.

11:41

The first car I had my eye on was one of those late 60s Volvos. Hell yeah. Yeah.

11:49

But for some reason, that didn't work out. And then somehow I saw this car,

11:56

this pink car tootling around town with a for sale sign in it. Oh my God.

12:01

And it was a 1960 Rambler, AMC Rambler American. Oh.

12:07

Deluxe, American Deluxe, the four-door. and because

12:11

my mother grew up in the

12:14

40s and 50s she also loved cars

12:17

and she was super

12:20

into it and she bought me this 1960 not

12:25

only a stick shift but a three on the tree right right no power steering not

12:31

even rack and pinion steering so as you their giant steering wheel and as you're

12:35

driving your steering wheel is just jiggling and every time you make a turn

12:38

and it takes like all the muscle in your body to like, yeah.

12:42

So she had to teach me how to drive this damn car. Right, right. Which was a tank.

12:47

So awesome though. Yeah. That summer, I remember I went to Idaho for like three weeks or something.

12:59

And my best friend at the time flew out and stayed for a while.

13:04

My mother made me go to Idaho. She's like, I'm leaving you at the beginning of your senior year.

13:09

And so why didn't homeboy move out with you guys?

13:13

Because he was a practicing dentist and he could not move his dental practice

13:16

and he was not ready to retire. Okay i mean i'll i'll it's

13:23

a little weird but at the same time it's like that's where

13:26

the money came from so my mom was a fucking teacher she

13:29

had a pension so there's that's great but but she

13:33

also moved to idaho and and

13:36

got a job like in the career counseling

13:39

office at caldwell high school which

13:42

is in caldwell which is right outside of boise see wait

13:46

did they graduate from no they graduated from nampa high make you go

13:49

with her because it was my last year of high

13:51

school and you would not have not have been happy she

13:54

didn't want to destroy she didn't want to take me away from all my friends

13:57

i was an athlete right and you'd been like in that town like in that school

14:03

all my life right the whole time all my life okay i didn't want to go to fucking

14:07

idaho so after the idaho visit that was it it was just her and the rambler and

14:14

a 25 year old sister there just in case.

14:18

I had this car and I just drove around, all my friends around in this car that summer on my own.

14:27

Like my sister didn't care that much. She only cared when we were all at the

14:32

house making noise and she was trying to go to sleep. Sure.

14:35

So you were just rambling about the town. Rambling about, yeah.

14:40

Music.

14:48

You know i never did anything bad my a bunch of my friends did but

14:51

like i was just sort of like you got this awesome pink

14:54

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

14:57

Let's go to the river it's so

15:01

weird it's amazing so weird i had no job like

15:05

no i did too that was the summer that i tutored and that

15:07

was really awkward why it was

15:11

just awkward i didn't know what i was doing and i didn't

15:14

really have like a vibe with children i don't think

15:17

at least not children i I at least children I didn't know

15:20

that was just weird yeah but but I did it and

15:23

so yeah I went through my entire senior year all

15:25

by myself but I got to drive to school and I

15:30

graduated you did and then went.

15:33

To junior college at Modesto New College so yeah so yeah

15:37

16 yeah yeah felt

15:41

like the height of things to some degree

15:44

i mean there

15:47

are the interesting thing

15:51

about like 16 17 is like

15:55

everything is new right like

15:58

yeah driving a car is brand new yeah

16:01

doing something just you and your friends brand new going

16:04

to the lake like by yourself brand new yeah

16:06

watching the sunset at the the light like yeah and

16:10

the feelings that come with that right like just everything's beautiful

16:13

and amazing and music and shit like right yeah so those memories are like so

16:18

burned into your brain yeah I think like because we've listened to tons of good

16:22

music since we were 16 totally we've seen so many sunsets yeah but those first

16:27

ones yeah burned in there man oh my god.

16:31

Music.

16:37

When I was 16, we had this nightclub. No, I was 15.

16:42

These guys from my best friend's church, New Life Church, opened like a teenage

16:49

nightclub called Wannabes on the west side of town.

16:53

Wannabes was the place you want to be. That was their slogan.

16:57

Oh, my God. And oh, my God, we had nothing else to do.

17:01

And so all of the goth kids from all over the county.

17:06

Medesto merced ripping patterson

17:11

all these fucking tiny ass shit towns were

17:14

going to wannabes on friday night and saturday night

17:17

and the musical was great

17:20

i met people that i might not

17:23

never have met like my best friend mark oh my

17:27

god those were the days man we would get all all dressed up and

17:30

like go to wannabes and that was

17:35

great when that place closed it was really sad but um that's

17:39

really cute yeah then we had to really scratch and scrape yeah there were some

17:43

things that happened in modesto but like sometimes you had to be 18 to get in

17:48

right wannabes actually you had to be 16 to get in but because tanya tanya was

17:53

a year older than me so she was already 16 i I was still 15.

17:56

She knew the guys that owned it. And so they would let me in. Right, right, right.

18:01

But like, I know how to line dance, even though I've never, ever liked country music.

18:09

But in Fresno, there was so little to do with teenagers that I could get into the line dancing place.

18:16

You know, it was like all ages or whatever. So I could go there and dance. And it was a thing.

18:21

Yeah. I mean, what did we have? We had the movie theater we had orchards yes

18:27

fuck yes do you know Tanya and I used to do oh my god me and Tanya and.

18:34

Leanne, sometimes my friend Leanne, we would go through our closets and get

18:39

all of our hats and our scarves and our this and our that.

18:42

And we would go out into the orchard and we would do photo shoots.

18:46

That's amazing. Because both Leanne and I were super into photography,

18:49

so we both had cameras. Right. And oh my God, the fun we had.

18:55

We should do that. I would do that. We should do that. Oh my God,

19:00

that would be hilarious. That would be hilarious. there was the drive-in did you guys

19:04

have a drive-in you know i don't think we did anymore oh

19:08

i did see star wars for the first time at the drive-in yeah with my dad that

19:13

was pretty epic yeah because we would just like load up so many people and go

19:17

to the drive-in oh well we had the roller rink in modesto the roller rink yeah

19:21

yes but you had to drive to modesto so you had a car,

19:26

15 minutes up the freeway yeah the river people's houses right a lot of a lot

19:32

of teenagers that I went to high school with like a lot of my friends who are

19:36

were not in my core friend group but I've known them all since first grade because

19:40

we all went to the same fucking schools the whole time right a lot of those friends,

19:44

were more like the normie jockey in those circles they went to parties yeah

19:51

but I never went to the parties because I was like no,

19:54

all these people are just getting wasted. Like, where's the fun in that? It didn't feel fun to me.

19:59

And there was always the risk of the cops showing up because the cops in Turlock were really bored.

20:05

Totally. And so, I mean, I think we spent, like my senior year,

20:10

especially alone, we spent a lot of nights like playing cards around my kitchen table.

20:14

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Laughing.

20:18

Yeah, I need to bring the kid down to have a conversation with them about this.

20:23

But like so many of my notes from middle school and high school are like planning

20:28

those activities, right? Like what are we doing this weekend?

20:32

Like, you know, come over to my house at this time and then we'll go to this

20:37

party or we'll go let's go roller skating on Saturday.

20:39

And so you let this person know and I'll let this person know.

20:42

And there was no cell phones to like organize all of this.

20:46

Right. So it happened via note and then maybe like actual landline phone call.

20:52

And then if somebody couldn't go they didn't have

20:54

any way of like letting you know that right you just be like well jimmy

20:58

didn't show up here today yeah something happened did

21:01

he get in trouble is he grounded totally yeah so much energy went into planning

21:05

those activities yeah that's true and i'm not sure i don't know i can't write

21:09

it i don't i can only like see from my own 16 yeah viewpoint yeah but there's

21:14

not a whole lot of that like planning activity kind of that was kind of like

21:18

like epic level activities. Yeah, that's true.

21:20

I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I did a lot of roller skating too.

21:24

Yeah. There was a lot of roller skate meetups. A lot of just doing nothing.

21:28

Yeah. Walking around town at night. A lot of walking around the town.

21:32

Doing stupid things. Yeah. Music.

21:41

There and there was this road that just was like

21:44

a eventually a country road like it's paved

21:47

and everything but nobody was ever driving on it and it

21:51

would get hilly and so we would just go park right at the top of the hill in

21:55

the middle of the road yes so dumb yeah but yeah just and look at the stars

22:00

or whatever yeah just right we would drive out and look on the country roads

22:04

and park and look at whatever and fuck around. Yeah.

22:09

Or did you guys cruise at all? A little bit in high school. Yeah.

22:13

A little bit of cruising. Yeah. On Main Street and Turlock. Definitely.

22:19

We would blast like, I remember one time we went in Kara's car, this girl Kara.

22:24

And she was blasting.

22:29

Visage. Fade to gray. Uh-huh. Kind of gothy, like new romantic-y style.

22:35

And we would blast that, you know, and there's all these guys in like lowriders. Right, right. Yep.

22:44

It was like you either had a lowrider and in Fresno they had like the lift.

22:50

Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't remember what you call that.

22:53

Or you had like a truck, like a race truck. Oh, hell yes. Those were like your two options.

22:58

Yeah. Yeah. And we were in this like fancy minivan or did those even exist then?

23:04

I think it was a minivan or it might even have been an SUV back then.

23:09

Her parents were rich. Okay. With tinted windows, I remember, too. Yeah.

23:14

Yeah. That's fancy. But you could pile a bunch of people in there and it would

23:18

be like, you know, blasting our goth music.

23:21

I got a car like my senior year.

23:24

But before that, I drove around in my mom's minivan.

23:29

And minivans are kind of the shit. You can like fit so many people in there. Yeah.

23:34

Door just like yeah pile in pile in pile in.

23:37

Music.

23:42

That was her senior year. Goth photo shoots in the orchard and a lot of boredom.

23:47

But I had a cool car to drive around in. Did your sister resent having to take care of you?

23:56

I think my sister resented that I was the youngest and was given much more leeway

24:03

than she was. Yeah, you said eight years.

24:06

That's a big gap. She was born in 1962.

24:09

Yeah, yeah. So your mom changed a lot in that time period. Yeah, she had to. Yeah.

24:16

She had to. My whole childhood was the women's revolution and feminism.

24:23

And yeah, my mom used to be liberal. And then she married my stepfather. And then she was not.

24:30

He was super right-wing. Your stepfather from Idaho. Super religious guy.

24:34

He was lovely, don't get me wrong. We did so many great things with him. That's good.

24:41

Couldn't begrudge her her happiness, though. No. And she did great things.

24:45

She got a master's, too. Really? Yeah, she got a master's in counseling.

24:49

And she worked as a school counselor for many years.

24:52

Music.

24:58

That's the story of the car. That wasn't just a car.

25:01

It marked the beginning of a new love story for Liz's mom and was a delineation

25:06

of Liz's life between that little kid biking to the bar and an independent young

25:11

woman cruising the country roads.

25:14

Music.

25:20

What happened to the Rambler? So I texted her and I thought this would be a

25:24

straightforward question, but it was not because the legend of the Rambler continued.

25:29

So I gave her a call. Hello. Oh my gosh, you answered. Yeah. Are you trying to tell me that it's the

25:39

Rambler that was was in your driveway?

25:42

The Rambler from the story. That's still in the driveway.

25:50

The Rambler is in her driveway, but that is so not the most interesting part.

25:56

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

26:00

Do you have time? You want to do it right now? Right f***ing now.

26:04

Are you available? I am such a bad friend.

26:07

Liz is home sick with COVID, but I need you to hear right now how it came to be in the driveway.

26:18

And it has to do again with my dad and his crazy ass sisters.

26:26

After my mom married Jay and moved away and I went off to college,

26:31

the house was sitting there empty. My mom couldn't really decide what to do with it and so one day randomly out

26:39

of nowhere my aunt millie called her up and essentially threatened to sue her

26:45

if my mom didn't sell her half of the house to my dad because he didn't have

26:50

a place to live like a good place to live and so essentially,

26:54

she bullied my mom out of her half of the house even though my mom paid

26:57

the house payment for many years after that

27:00

without my dad's help and they proceeded to

27:04

come in and clear out

27:08

the house of all of

27:11

our stuff and said come

27:14

get your shit and towed the

27:17

rambler to a towing lot

27:20

lot I was like

27:23

what the actual fuck and I didn't

27:26

know what happened to the car no one

27:29

ever really told me and so eventually my brother was like oh dad's been paying

27:34

the fees for it to sit in this towing lot and my brother sweet as he was lived

27:40

in San Jose at the time went and picked it up and and towed it to my house in Richmond. Oh, my God.

27:48

And so it sat in my driveway in East Richmond Heights for a few years,

27:54

and there were weeds growing all the way through the engine compartment,

28:00

and it had two flat tires on one side. That's like breaking my heart.

28:06

It was really sad. It was such a beautiful car, too. too.

28:11

She didn't have money or time to deal with it, and AMC parts are difficult to

28:15

find. But maybe salvation is on the way.

28:20

One day, I came home and my roommate, Dina, was like, hey, somebody left this note.

28:26

It was just like this note in this horrible scrawl. And it was like,

28:31

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

28:37

telling me that the neighbors were complaining about it.

28:41

That it was an eyesore, which I think was a total lie.

28:45

He just thought it was an eyesore. so I get

28:47

the note and I look at the handwriting I'm like well it's Richmond this

28:50

could be any crazy person so I

28:53

just ignored it and then this guy came and knocked on the door and my roommate

28:59

was home and I was not and so she told she was like this guy knocked on the

29:04

door and wants to know if you want to sell the car and I was like yeah and then

29:08

I ignored that too and then.

29:13

Two days before christmas i had stayed home sick and i was asleep on the couch

29:18

and oh man did i look a wreck i was like in my pajamas and i had a short haircut

29:23

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

29:31

who's knocking on your door in richmond that you know in in the dark in the

29:36

evening and so i was like who is it,

29:40

There's this little voice on the other side of the door that's like, um, it's about the car.

29:45

And I was like, ugh. So I opened the little window and I looked at this guy and I was like,

29:53

eh, he looks kind of harmless. And I opened the door and I was like, yeah.

29:58

And he was like, I don't know. I wonder if you want to sell that car.

30:05

And I was like, actually, why don't you come in? So I invited this total stranger into my home.

30:13

But he was cute. He had like little peg pants and Converse high top and like

30:18

a mechanics jacket and a beanie. And I was like, oh, there's cool people in my neighborhood?

30:24

Because he was like, oh, yeah, I just live, you know, around the corner and

30:27

up the street. And I was like, oh. We started talking and he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm in a...

30:33

I was in a band. I'm in a ska band.

30:36

And I was like, oh, I like ska. But yeah, my band lives right up the street. And anyway, the car, blah, blah, blah.

30:44

And I was like, look, that thing has not been looked at in a million years.

30:47

My brother is the one that used to fix it. I'm going to his house for Christmas.

30:52

I will find out what he remembers is wrong with it. I'll get back to you when

30:57

I get back. And he was like, yeah, okay. She went home for Christmas, talked to her brother, and intended to call the

31:03

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.

31:11

And I picked it up, and it was Jimmy, the car guy, the guy that wants to buy my Rambler.

31:16

I was like, whoa, that's weird. I was just picking up the phone to call you.

31:20

I was like, well, I kind of got the suit for my brother, and he was like,

31:22

I want to come over and make you an offer. And I was like, okay. okay.

31:27

He came over and he said, what did he offer me? Like 300 bucks.

31:32

And I was like, my brother told me not to take less than five.

31:35

So it's going to be 500 bucks. And he was like, okay, here's 300 now. I'll get you the 200 tomorrow.

31:43

And I was like, okay, I know where you live. Like chill out.

31:49

He was so like giddy. And then he was like, Hey, uh, so my roommates Nice and

31:54

I are going to go down to the Mallard and have some drinks if you want to join us.

32:00

And I was like, yeah, okay, that'd be fun. And I was like, but I need to change and shower and stuff.

32:07

He's like, okay, I'll come pick you up later. And I was like, okay.

32:12

They went for drinks and she saw his house around the corner,

32:15

met his weird and entertaining roommates, played some pool.

32:19

He promptly gave her that last 200 bucks. And the Rambler was his.

32:24

Music.

32:30

And then it was like, well, I'll get the car out of your driveway ASAP. I'll tow it away.

32:36

And I was like, dude, it's been sitting there forever.

32:39

If you want to work on it in the driveway, you're welcome to. Yeah, yeah.

32:48

It was the week between Christmas and New Year's, so Liz was off work.

32:51

And every day, Jimmy and his pals would come over and work on the Rambler.

32:55

So I was home every day and I made these numples like coffee and pancakes.

33:02

I don't know what came over me, but...

33:09

Christmas of 1999. They got the Rambler running.

33:16

You and Jimmy have now been together for like 25 years.

33:21

Yeah. I can't believe that's right. He loves to joke that he got a car and a girl for 500 bucks.

33:30

It's a pretty good deal. Music.

33:39

And where is the Rambler? It's in our driveway right now.

33:45

It was his daily driver for many years. It was! I love it!

33:53

Many years, he drove that thing to the city for work every day. Oh, yay.

34:00

Yeah. Yeah. She needs some love and attention. Yeah. Yeah. Are you accepting offers?

34:06

No. No. It's your baby. The car is not for sale.

34:12

The car is not for sale. Music.

34:22

The Jiggler. Yeah, it has many nicknames. My sister called it La Bamba.

34:27

My brother called it the Pregnant Roller Skate.

34:30

Music.