Memories of Minnie

She was a part of our family for 13 years – entering just two weeks after Allison came on the scene.  We called her “Minnie.”  She was a green Mazda MPV minivan.  She left us last night.  Danny took her to the car sale and sold her to a 300-pound Mexican man named “Beano.” (I’m serious – you can’t make this stuff up)  She was a good van.  She carried our family safely for over 250,000 miles.  We hated to replace her, but…it was time.  Here are a few memories of Minnie:

I had never wanted a minivan before, but our family was growing.  Emily Kate was just 2, and Allison had just been born, and I suddenly became open to the idea of a minivan. I remember the day that it hit me how cool it was to have a minivan when you have babies.  It was the day that Tammy changed a diaper on a baby while we were cruising down the Interstate at 70 mph.  That was it.  I was a converted minivan Dad.

We got her around Christmas time.  I remember loading up everyone in the “new” van and going to Spring Valley to see the Christmas lights.  We were so careful to keep things clean (the way we always are when a car is new) until we were helped out by Daniel Shultz.  We had taken the youth group from Holmes St. UMC to Pigeon Forge, and Daniel was riding in the front seat of Minnie, and he threw up (massive, chunky, industrial-strength puke) all over the front floorboard of our new van.  She was now officially christened as a kid-friendly zone.

Daniel was just the first in a long line of pukers in Minnie.  All three of our kids, various dogs and cats and youth group members, all had about every bodily function you can imagine in that van over the course of 13 years and 250,000 miles.  Minnie served as a truck and a moving van, hauling all kinds of stuff to all kinds of places.  She’s served as a camper (when the kids were little we’d fold the back seats down and put their sleeping bags back there).  Minnie has rocked out to our CD’s and our singing.  She’s done a little bit of everything, and she was a little bit worse for wear.  Minnie had a broken rear bumper, where Tammy backed into Zeke’s mailbox.  She had a scraped front fender from something (Tammy has been really vague about that particular damage).  She makes funny noises sometimes when she’s idling (the van, not Tammy).  The driver’s side window doesn’t work anymore.  You get the idea.  Like the Velveteen Rabbit, you could tell she had been “loved.”

We replaced Minnie with “The Silver Bullet,” a silver (duh) 2009 Mazda 5.  We are still getting to know her, but I think we are really going to get along swimmingly!

So - farewell, Minnie!  You were a good van!  I’m glad you went to a good home.  I have to smile when I picture Beano driving you around.  I just hope he doesn’t mind a few dents and a few stains.