A day in the life of Stacy

An ode to the Duster

The Duster was officially sold yesterday to a high school kid named Phil. Todd is changing a gasket on it for him tonight and he is going to pick it up on Thursday. The Blue Book value was around $1000 but we sold it for $1500. Apparently 'awesome' is worth $500. They stopped making Sundances/Shadows/Dusters in 94 which is the year of THE Duster. It has been in my family since its birth, it has a great paint job, under 100,000 miles, and is in freakishly good shape. Since it was a cheap car to start with and they haven't made them in ten years, if you come across a car in the Sundance family, chances are, its come across hard times. Every time I see one, I think, what a beater. But not my Duster, she's still a little beauty. Phil couldn't believe what good shape it was in and fell in love. Todd knew we would sell it to the first person that looked at it and he was right. Phil called about the car the first day it was in the paper. Phil's dad Steve was aware of the Blue book value and tried the line, "I'll give you $1200 cash right now..." Todd didn't fall for it. "Steve, the car's only been for sale a couple of days, you won't find a car in this condition for $1500." Steve turned to Phil and said, "You're the one that's going to be paying me back..." Phil's all, "I want it, lets do it..." The $1500 check was in our hands within minutes.
The story of the Duster:
It all started when Elliott turned 16. My Grandma gave him her old car, Bessie, and she bought a car from her neighbor, an 86 Taurus. Bessie, if memory serves me correctly, was a 79 Impala, in baby blue inside and out. It had a high degree of big pimpin'. In this glorious ride, Elliott drove us to school for a month or two. I think Bessie just wasn't up to the rigorus demands of a 16 year old and Elliott wanted more of a date mobile. So he made a deal with the devil, handing over every paycheck to my mother for every minute of work for every summer until paid off, or until mom forgot about it, whichever came first, and got the Duster. Imagine young Elliott, 16 years old. CD walkman with tape deck converter, blasting Shaq Diesel. Hat backwards. Driving 94 Duster instead of 79 Impala. Did he think he was the coolest thing ever? You be the judge. Fun fact: He started dating Nicole his senior year, she is currently his wife. At the time she was driving a Shadow, in the exact same color. Some think that they are the same car, but I'm here to tell you, the sticker is TOTALLY different. Anyway, a year later, I'm about to turn 16. My grandpa had been teaching me to drive in the Taurus, and my mom had been teaching me in her Oldsmobile. I think it was an 88, but I really don't know. What I do know is that it had old lady written all over it. I told her I'd rather drive the Taurus. I think Grandma was more than happy to trade because that's what they did. The Taurus served me well. It was the most generic looking car ever. It was gray on the outside, it may have well been invisable. I would wave at people and nobody would notice. Anyway, on my brother's 19th birthday he decided the Duster wasn't cool enough for a first year engineering student at Rolla, he needed a cherry red truck. (To haul all those books I guess) So in the spring of my senior year I inherited the Duster. Now people would see me coming and wave, ahh, a dream come true. Another fun fact: There was a girl that looked a lot like me that went to Washington high school that drove the exact same Duster, sun roof and all. People would wave at her thinking she was me. Elliott didn't let me drive the Duster until he got his truck but people would still talk about seeing me in it driving somewhere long before I had ever driven it. They were also mad because I didn't wave back. I would see my alter ego every once in a while, few people get to do that. Anyway, the Duster's been with me ever since. I had to get a new car before I had Isabel, one with four doors so I could get a car seat in and out. So the Duster has been sitting, pretty much since Isabel was born. Its unfair to the Duster. She must run free and live up to her glory as the perfect teenager car. Take good care of her Phil, and she'll take good care of you...

posted by Stacy @ 1:06 PM