After my freshman year of college at the University of Oregon, with my high school ride no longer a viable option, my parents bought a 1994 Honda Accord to make holiday travel to and from school easier and extend my collegiate freedom beyond the dorms.
This past weekend, after eight years and more than 100,000 miles together, a destroyed clutch forced me to part with that car for, well, its parts.
During the past few months, as I was attempting to sell it, the old Honda has been a source of frustration. But even that headache couldn’t dull the memories from countless hours behind the wheel of a car that was far from perfect, but provided the background to life and time’s shifts.Here are a few of the highlights, and lowlights:
Across from the Bellevue Downtown Park, where I triumphantly showed some friends the new stereo.
Outside a former place of employment, where said stereo had been replaced by a gaping hole and several snipped wires.
Along I-5 at the Washington-Oregon border, where the clutch went out, leaving me stranded on a bridge for two hours waiting for a tow truck to take me three more hours home.
Outside my final bachelor pad apartment, where I started it up for the first time in months after saving to have the parts replaced in order to see my parents.
At a middle school in Bothell, where I turned into the parking lot too sharply and spent my lunch hour putting on the (luckily full-sized) spare tire.
In the parking lot of an auto parts dealer and wrecking yard, telling the buyer that I had all four tires replaced recently and they are in good shape, only a hint of nostalgia in my voice as I realize I won’t be the one to replace them again.
That Honda, no matter how dusty or tough to shift into reverse, was always there. From Washington to Oregon and back, from college kid to cubicle-farmer, from careless and single to cautious and engaged, the car was there for all the transformations.
The new ride is more powerful under the hood and refined in the cabin. Hopefully, when all it’s worth is parts, we will be a little further on down the road.
Josh Suman: 425-453-5045;jsuman@bellevuereporter.com
