C.H. Armstrong Books

If you’ve ever been around teens, you know that – once they hit about age 14 or 15 – the only thing on their minds is what kind of car they’re going to get.  They start scoping out the car lots in their early teens and some of them even start making lists regarding exactly what type of cars they’d prefer to have.  I know this because I have a teenager.  At about age 14, Amber (now 16) began letting us know what types of cars she really liked and even asked us to do a couple of drive-arounds in new car lots.  At the time it was amusing.  She was only 14, so the “threat” of having to worry about a car for her wasn’t even on our radar.

“What makes you think you’d get a new car?” Troy asked her.

“Ewww…I wouldn’t want a used car,” she said.  “That’s just…gross!  You don’t know what the last owner has done in a  used car!”

With a twisted and evil grin on his face, Troy said “When your time comes to get a car and if we decide to buy you a car, we’re going to get you the oldest, most rickety and beat up car on the lot!”

“No way!  Gross!” she exclaimed.  “What if they threw up in there or something?”

“Then you’ll have a stinky car,” Troy responded.

Well, as you can imagine if you’ve ever had younger siblings, Amber’s reaction to this was too much for Braden – then 5 or 6 – to let pass him by.  “We’re gonna get sister a stinky car!” Braden yelled.  “A stinky car for Sister…A stinky car for Sister…” he began to sing from the backseat.

Obviously Amber was not amused and it therefore became our mantra for the next two years.  “We’re going to get Sister a stinky car!”  The only way to shut her up when the conversation came up was to remind her that we were going to get her a “stinky car.”  She was completely not amused.

And really, when you think about it, what is her real objection to a used car?  There are a lot of really cool cars out there!  Take for example the following:

In any case, it’s a moot point.  As the years passed and we started crunching the numbers, we finally decided that a car wasn’t on the radar at all (in the short term, at least) for Amber.  We have two cars and there is usually one here that she can borrow if she has a need to go somewhere.  So, much to her disappointment and dismay, she’s 16 now with no car to call her own.  At this point, I think she’d welcome that stinky car.

The other day Amber was texting with her best friend, Sarah.  Sarah’s family has three children with schedules going in different directions, so it makes sense that her parents try to find some mode of transportation for her.  And apparently they found something as evidenced by the following text message between the two girls.  Unfortunately, Sarah doesn’t seem too thrilled with their choice of vehicle for her.

Never one to miss an opportunity to point out how someone else has something she wishes she had, Amber decided to take this moment to remind Sarah how lucky she was.  At least Sarah had a car…ugly though she thought it might be.  It was a car.  It was transportation.  It was hers.  It was freedom!  The following is the text Amber sent to Sarah in response:

That’s my girl!  If you can’t get what you want, at least you can have a sense of humor about it!  Just for fun, I thought I’d see if I could find a car that met Amber’s needs…