Have you recently started feeling old? If so, what made you realize that spring-chicken and you no longer went together like horse and carriage? In my case, I saw a car... But not just any car. Actually, it was two of them, about four days apart. The first was a 1981 Dodge Aries K and the second, a 1982 Mercury LN7.
Although the Mercury was a rare sight even in its heyday, the Aries was as common as any Cavalier, Escort or Corolla at the time. In fact, about a million of them were sold between 1981 and 1989. My uncle even owned 3 or 4 of them over a six year period; he went through them like tissue paper as they were used as a taxi.
When I noticed this 1st gen Aries, innocently parked by the curb near my apartment, I was confused. I obviously knew this car, I had seen thousands of them in the past, I had even ridden in them as a young lad. Even so, I felt stumped. And I slowly realized why: I had not crossed one of these on the road in years! And then, it dawned on me: I'm getting older.
I have reached a point in my young life, where I remember seeing cars at an Auto Show or on the road for the first and matching that with the fact that they are all but extinct today. Here are a few more examples: Ford Escort, Pontiac Fiero, Plymouth Horizon, Chevrolet Citation, Buick Skylark, Mercury Topaz, Oldsmobile Achieva...
I can only imagine how my uncle feels when he makes his way to an antique car show and gazes upon a 1958 Chrysler Windsor, the first car he ever drove when he was 14.
Do you remember a similar instance where a car made you feel old?
Although the Mercury was a rare sight even in its heyday, the Aries was as common as any Cavalier, Escort or Corolla at the time. In fact, about a million of them were sold between 1981 and 1989. My uncle even owned 3 or 4 of them over a six year period; he went through them like tissue paper as they were used as a taxi.
When I noticed this 1st gen Aries, innocently parked by the curb near my apartment, I was confused. I obviously knew this car, I had seen thousands of them in the past, I had even ridden in them as a young lad. Even so, I felt stumped. And I slowly realized why: I had not crossed one of these on the road in years! And then, it dawned on me: I'm getting older.
I have reached a point in my young life, where I remember seeing cars at an Auto Show or on the road for the first and matching that with the fact that they are all but extinct today. Here are a few more examples: Ford Escort, Pontiac Fiero, Plymouth Horizon, Chevrolet Citation, Buick Skylark, Mercury Topaz, Oldsmobile Achieva...
I can only imagine how my uncle feels when he makes his way to an antique car show and gazes upon a 1958 Chrysler Windsor, the first car he ever drove when he was 14.
Do you remember a similar instance where a car made you feel old?