Meet the Buick. This was the vehicle that I was so blessed to drive throughout a portion of my high school career. Some of my favorite things about this car were:1. The dent in the side of the left, backseat door, courtesy of my brothers hip. And the broken seat belt.
2. The fact that I was the only person in the state of Utah under the age of 85 that drove this make and model.
3. The smooth, low ride it provided.
4. The plethora of nicknames it had: the bui, the land yacht, the boat, etc.
5. The thrill I got every time I got in it, hoping and praying that it would still turn on and run properly.
Which brings me to my first day of school, junior year. Because of my summer birthday, this was the first day that I was able to drive to high school. I was ecstatic. Although I didn't have the 'hippest' car at Viewmont High School, it was a car nonetheless and I had the keys. At approximately 7:05 am I said good-bye to my mother and walked out of the house, ready to start a new year of school. I was full of that anticipation and excitement that you get at the start of every school year as I walked to the Buick and unlocked the door. I drove two houses down the street and stopped at Alyssa's house to give her a ride. This was her sophomore year, and the first day she would be attending high school, I'm sure her anticipation was even greater than mine. I laid my hand on the horn to let her know I was outside her house, and as I lifted my hand off the steering wheel, I was shocked by what happened. Normally, the honking stops when pressure is released, however this particular time the honking continued despite the fact that my hand was no longer anywhere near the steering wheel. Yes, the horn in my reliable Buick had stuck. Because I know nothing about cars, I didn't know what to do other than put my hands up in the air, claiming my innocence at what was occurring. Alyssa's entire family walked onto the porch to see what the commotion was, and seeing that I had no control over the situation waved good-bye as Alyssa entered the passenger seat, laughing nervously. I quickly explained that I had no idea what was going on or how to fix it and we both decided that the best thing to do would be to continue on to school and hope that the honking would cease on its own. Did I mention that this honking that was going on was quite loud and a solid stream of blaring noise? It wasn't a "beep beep" every few seconds. It was a continuous "beeeeeeeeeeep" and it took no breaks to breathe.
As we drove through the neighborhood, I hid my face in shame as all of the neighbors peeked their heads out the windows to see who that obnoxious driver was. Eventually we got to Main Street and I wildly underestimated the amount of traffic that would be there. Bumper to bumper traffic. Completely stopped, moving maybe 5 feet every ten minutes. And I had a horn that was letting off a continuous honk. This is the point in the story that I felt like Brian Regan, I felt like yelling, "Go, my favorite sports team, go. Score a goal, unit, basket, point." Instead, I half-joking, mostly seriously, asked Alyssa to get a paper out of my notebook and write in bold letters, "SORRY, I'M NOT HONKING ON PURPOSE" She chose not to, and instead I called my dad in distress, looking for insight on what I should do. His solution was to pull off Main Street somewhere and wait for him to meet me and switch me cars. Our first attempt at this was into a small neighborhood, but when the 93 year old man working in his yard glared at us with annoyance we decided to move locations. We settled on the city Post Office and soon enough my dad met me with his car and we made the swap. I took the parking pass from the Buick and put it in his car and Alyssa and I were well on our way to the public high school. Unfortunately we hadn't planned the car delays into our schedule, and ended up being a good 20 minutes late to the first day of school. That didn't go over well with Mr. Crook, but I sucked up to him enough throughout the remainder of the year that we parted on good terms and he eventually forgot my first impression.
You'd think this would be the end of the story. Oh no my friends, it is not. I was sitting in class and meanwhile my dad somehow got the horn to stop honking. He drove it over to the high school and swapped cars back. I had failed to inform him that the parking pass needed to be swapped back as well, and as a result I ended up with a parking ticket that day. Later that day, I had a tennis tournament and in a hurry to get changed into my uniform, I grabbed my clothes from the car and accidentally bumped the horn on my way out. Because of my time crunch, I didn't even try to get the horn to stop, but instead locked the doors and ran into the girls locker room with the horn blaring in the background. I went off to Salt Lake, carpooling with other team members, and upon my return to Viewmont's parking lot, I found that the continuous honking had killed my battery. Although the honking had ceased, so had the Buick's life, temporarily. After several tries of jumping the car, we eventually revived it and had a smooth ride home. It was the most eventful 'first day of school' I've ever had and needless to say, for the remainder of the year I called Alyssa when I got to her house. I never touched that horn again.
Although the Buick wasn't the hot car that everyone talked about, it had character and I loved it dearly. I shed a tear or two the day that two elderly gentlemen came to take it away to it's retirement home. Sometimes I wish I could return to the days of the Buick, and on those days I just listen to Brian Regan and I am taken back immediately.
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