Bank of Holly Springs

Close to Nowhere

Not my fault!

I’m blaming everything on my grandson-in-law Tim. He really did start it.

A month or so ago, he decided that Merideth, my granddaughter, his wife and mother of the most amazing great-grandson ever, needed her own car, instead of sharing a car with him.

Not long after, they drove up in a gleaming, silvery-gray Hyundai Sonata. Low and sleek and all fancy. I rode to church a couple times with them, in the back seat with the baby — it was comfy and cushy. And I was jealous.

On my 50th birthday I had traded in my grandmother van for a sleek, snappy little red Toyota. I loved my little red car. When I gave it to Mere it had right at 300,000 miles on it. Then I bought another van. I’m an idiot.

About a month or so after I bought the van I remembered that I hated them. I can’t back up or park or anything in that dumb van. Actually, I was dumb for buying it, but...

A week or so ago, daughter Dana asked me to ride to Oxford with her to look at a car. Seems she was having the same problems with her big ole pickup truck that I was having with my van.

We pulled into the lot of Moore Brothers Auto Sales in Oxford and there sat a gleaming black Toyota Prius. She’d already picked it out; she just wanted to drive it and make sure she loved it before she signed the papers.

Salesman Champ met us at the car with the keys and off we went. She loved it. I loved it. I was really sad when we got back to the car lot.

Champ, sensing my misery, said he had a nice Toyota Rav4. I love Toyotas. I did not like the older model that he showed me, however.

Laughing, I told him that I wanted gadgets and computer stuff and pretty. If he could find me something like that...

I drove home in my shiny black van that had absolutely nothing wrong with it except I hated it.

The very next day I had several texts from Champ. Pictures of a shiny new black car were bouncing all over my phone.

I broke speed records getting back to Oxford. The new little car was sitting out front and good ole Champ was right there with the keys. I didn’t even cast an eye toward my van as they drove it around back and I drove off in my new Nissan Rogue.

I now have a sunroof, navigation system, back up camera and 30 mpg instead of 17!

Oh, my red Toyota that Tim is driving — 400,000 miles.

Holly Springs South Reporter

P.O. Box 278
Holly Springs, MS 38635
PH: (662) 252-4261
FAX: (662) 252-3388
www.southreporter.com