Not Learning From Bad History
My grandparents Doty lived across the street from Gene Autry, the cowboy entertainer. Whenever we visited the grandparent’s house in Studio City, California, we wondered what was behind the gate with the California Angel’s "A" on it. Because, as a baseball fan, what we really wanted was for Gene (who we didn’t even know) to take us to an Angles game, let us play on the field, let us take a stint at being bat boy, or just introduce us to the players.
One year, it happened. Gene Autry gave us (i.e., Grandma and Grandpa Doty who actually knew Gene) tickets for his box seat. I was a boy of eleven or twelve, and, as one might imagine, very excited. My younger brother and sister were already in Studio City visiting grandpa and grandma. The rest of us were going to take the Gold/Bronze Toyota Van from our Mesa, Arizona house out to California in time to go to the game.
Alas, as we packed the back of the van sitting in the garage, which had it’s hatch opened, my even younger toddler brother pushed the garage door button. The closing garage door turned the hatch from a "/" into a "^". The hatch would no longer close. We didn’t make it to the game (my other siblings did). Gene never gave us his box seats again.
(Not our actual van)
Yesterday, after getting my oldest daughter Grace out of the back of the car and juggling both my younger daughter Ava and a bag of goodies from Home Depot, I closed the garage door on the open hatch of our Honda Pilot. Right after pushing the button, I heard an an awful crunching sound. I turned around, recognized the situation, and reversed the garage door. Aside from a few little scratches that Grace kindly pointed out, the hatch thankfully closes fine. Apparently, if you want to turn your hatch into a "^", you have to be leaving to do something really important.
P.S.
Am I really old enough to have once thought that van was cool?
P.P.S.
I learned to drive on that same (not the one above) bronze/gold, manual shift, Toyota van. I was a real chick magnet driving that thing around Mesa and Gilbert. Finally, we upgraded and I got to drive my mom’s Dodge Carivan around.
[I hate minivans.]