Saturday, August 06, 2005

And just what are you implying, Ms. Subconscious?

Does your car have a name?

I was catching up on blogs a bit, and when I came across the to-do list over at Cheesehead in Paradise, I remembered part of a dream I had last night. Someone needed to find my car, and they asked me what its name was so they could find it. I had to explain to them that, in fact, we are not the kind of people who name our cars. So, rather than calling it and having it answer, they would have to find it themselves. Apparently, in dream world, cars come when called by name, but I still drove my red Honda Civic. Oh well.

In the real world, it turns out that I really am not the kind of person who names their car. Does your car have a name? How did that happen?

16 comments:

Raisin said...

The only name my white Honda Civic has is "the Civic," since John & Noah both drive Accords. Mine isn't called "Whitey" or anything!

Beth said...

My family never named cars, but in high school we had a friend who was horrified by this and he named them. So by the time I had a car that was "mine," she'd been Lucille for a while. I didn't name my first very-own car, but then it was totaled within about three months, and I decided I'd better name my new car. Rory named him "Cecil" (pronounced SEE-sill) after the street I was living on. I was unsure about having a male care, but Cecil is great. :)

geebrooke said...

I read somewhere that vehicles are often named alliteratively with their model name. So you'd get maybe "Cynthia" for a Civic, "Dora" for a Durango, or whatever.

We drive an SL2, so...I don't know. If I named my Schwinn Sprint, I'd call it, "Summer."

Dawgdays said...

I don't name my cars. But I do have a friend who named his VW Beetle (old style) "Helmut". This was when he was in high school. I think he still has the car, some 30 years later.

Ryan said...

Not only does my car have a name, but cars must be named according to proper decorum where I come from (would you have guessed any differently?). Brooke is absolutely correct. The first letter of your car's name must coorespond to the first letter of your car's make or model. Furthermore, vehicles are always given female names.

Mine is Isis the Infinity.

Likewise, I finally settled on Felicia the Felt F-90 for my bike.

-R

Theresa Coleman said...

Harvey the pooka truck -- King Richard the Oldsmobile, Redbird for the red Sunbird, Blackbird for the (guess) black Sunbird. SR71 for the other black Sunbird.

Alfred for the Escort, Sammy for the Saturn, The Enterprise for the Bravda. Madame Blueberry for the Expedition. Mistress Mischief for the Mercury.

What?

Charlotte said...

My mother named her cars (usually variants on Elizabeth - "Bessie" was the first one I remember), so when I got one, it acquired a name.

My Toyota Corolla hatchback was "Chrissie" (after Hynde, the Rockin' Roller).

The name for my current one - Ruby the Wonder Car, or Rubyroo, a dark-red Subaru wagon - hasn't really stuck in my mind. The Corolla was definitely always Chrissie.

Jody Harrington said...

The only car I ever named was "Bessie", a Chevy Suburban (the National Car of Texas, dontchaknow). Bessie hauled many carpools when my girls were little. I hated to see her go when she pooped out on a mountain in Colorado while on vacation.

Anonymous said...

thanks Susie for the link. It seemed an odd thing to ask for perhaps- but we were told to be able to write a collect of our own, and given the three parts of the prayer but no examples.

Be blessed :)

Anonymous said...

message for raisin - as she has a blogger only account. Sorry to comment here but wanted to encourage you. Maybe Susie can get this to you???

Greek is tough. I survived the full year (waiting results of the final) but had bad dreams too. And the verb luo (to loosen /destroy) is the easy one because it's regular, but always struck me as a weird verb for Christians to start with

At times I didn't see the point at all of studying Greek, except to appreciate all the work of translators over the years ... but I loved hermeneutics and you will too I feel.

blessings on your studies.

Anonymous said...

Most of my (I have had wayyyy too many in the past 10 years) have had names. I thought your first car in highschool had a name? The one you painted purple?
Chris and Emily have named their cars (and many of their domestic possessions, also) and talk about them as if they were alive. I'm starting to wonder if you're on to something here! My thesis will be on the pyschosis underlying the personification of material objects.

jo(e) said...

I've never named one of my cars. But they tend to come and go quickly so perhaps it is best that I don't get too attached.

Raisin said...

So, to change the focus only slightly...I named my last bicycle Apostle. I was 17 years old then!

Unknown said...

My husband likes to tease me about my Volvo wagon, which has heated seats. He calls it "The Spa."

Anonymous said...

The Jesus Pod.

Or...less tactfully...

The Little Red Theological Short Bus

Sometimes we sing a song entitled "small car!" The lyrics are as follows:

Small car...

There you go, there is no more to say. It is a small car. It is red. There are oft theological conversations had within its confines.

frog said...

charlotte, I love it that you named your car for Chrissie. She's one of my way-back sheroes.

All of my cars have had names--when I was small, I named my parents' cars, and now I name mine. The 1984 Ford Escort that started on fire on the interstate was Elmo, the Saturn before my current car was Stella, and the one that I drive now is Lizzie Majiggy, named by one of the Small Friends.

I didn't name my Mazda and only drove it for a few months before the alternator went--twice. So, now I'm superstitious.