I was one of the few kids in my group of middle school friends who didn’t have a car.
I had to bum rides from whoever I could whenever I couldn’t borrow my mother’s minivan. Back then my buddy and I just wanted to spend endless hours driving with amazing music playing on the car boombox. This is what my friends and I would do more than anything else when gasoline was cheap back at that time. Although once I hit 18, my buddy and I were often “smoking” in the car as much as I don’t like to admit to it these nights. My friend and I would get something absolutely strong, feel the effects, and then space out to some trippy sounding music that we’d take turns curating. This was right at the beginning of the smartphone era so my buddy and I all had CDs and MP3 players at the time. I inherited an SUV from a family member after I graduated from middle school and I’ll never forget how good I felt getting that car detailed for the first time and putting my stuff inside to make it “mine.” I had CDs all over the venue by the end of my freshman year of university. Unfortunately, the cooling system in that car only lasted for six months after I got the coolant recharged during my detailing visit. The mechanic thought that it just needed current coolant, but my buddy and I later determined that it had a leaking compressor. You could top off the coolant in the car’s cooling system, but then it would drain within six months of daily use, leaving you back where you started again.