There was only one car that I ever owned that I hated.

I have only ever owned one car that I hated. To keep this post on a positive note, I'll note that I’ve been blessed to own many cars I loved.

The tan Maverick four-door sedan. My first. My now-you-can-finally-go-wherever-you want-whenever-you-want car. (I was 16, Kate just reminded me.) You can even drive to the shore.

The green Pinto four-speed manual. I never think about the Pinto without thinking of the feel of shifting it: four whole gears, not just three. Whenever I wanted, to whatever ratio—torque or fast—I wanted.

The light green Buick sedan. Smooth, spacious, quiet.

The white Cutlass sedan with the fuzzy red interior. Our oldest cried when we traded it in for the Buick wagon. The Ford custom van with an actual TV for movies for the kids and for continually banging your head on. When you packed it for the shore for five kids, or was it four, it just sucked up the luggage. The car went on and on, and then for boogie boards you’ve got your Turtle Top. Or did that go on the sluggish Volvo wagon with the overdrive button that didn’t do anything? And later the sleek Aerostar. Sorry, let's go back to the teenage years: the Triumph Herald convertible. Oh my! The Mutt and Jeff car. More stories, never mind.

Beloved cars, on and on, marking the succeeding pages of an ordinary American middle-class life in an American paradise we took for granted until it began to crumble in our hands.

It would not be inappropriate, all of those material blessings having been raised, to mention the only car I ever owned that I hated.

The grey and black '72 Mercury Capri. I could go on about how we got it (my mother-in-law couldn’t stand it any more) and why I hated it. But then I would have to tell you about two more which I loved that I just remembered. No…three. The black Celica convertible, the Audi. (The $750 ‘99 Ranger with the front bumper hanging askew and the cigarette burns in the headliner, and the timeless Mitsubishi inline four, no surveillance devices anywhere…you can’t seem to find those at any price.) And so on.

How we oldsters do drone.