The Pink Hubcaps

The story about the pink hubcaps is true. It is about a summer of transition for a young girl and the choices she made. I was the parent that survived the pink hub caps.

As the parent of a teenager, everything we experience ends with an exclamation mark. Inject the gender of the teenager to be a girl and everything ends in a double exclamation mark. Allow me to explain myself.

I promised my daughter a car upon completion of high school. She had proven herself to be a safe and responsible teen driver. She was also a good student and she even scored high on her SAT tests. She was accepted by all three universities she wanted to attend. She had to decide which of the three she would make as her final decision. I was very proud of her. Exclamation mark!

So you see I was obligated to follow through on my promise to purchase her a new vehicle. Soon after high school graduation, the two of us trotted off to the dealership. We looked for what seemed like hours for the perfect car. Living in our state requires at least one basic feature in the car. That is a working air conditioner. You'd fry in your car if you did not have air conditioning in the car.

My daughter finally decided on a vehicle. That was a tough decision because everything we looked at prior to the car did not satisfy one of us for one reason or another. Most of them were out of my budget. The car we agreed on was a new midnight black Ford Escort. It was a cute little car and it looked as if it were designed for a female driver. I actually liked the car. It was not too small and it was not a "gas guzzler."

The salesman said it was the special of the week for the dealership. I asked why? He said there is no air conditioning in the car. I was ready to walk away from the car and try another dealership. My daughter pleaded with me. She was almost in tears over the car.

I explained she would be miserable driving around town in a hot car. Her response to me was, "I can drive fast down the freeway and stay cool that way." Both the salesman and I looked at her with a long stare but said nothing. Exclamation mark!

I purchased the pretty little shiny black Ford Escort with the wing tip on the trunk. I really did not feel good about that purchase but It was well within my budget.

My daughter drove  the Ford Escort home and was the happiest person in our town. Around the time of the car purchase, my daughter was into the colors "pink and black." Soon after the purchase, she saw pink hub caps on sale in an auto magazine. She purchased the pink hub caps and as many pink and black accessories she could afford for her new car.She was proud of her pink and black car. She drove the car all over town with the pink and black hub caps.

In the meantime, she was offered a job as a kiosk attendant at one of the county parks. She accepted the job mainly because it was outside. And she could park her car a few feet from the kiosk where she worked. Exclamation mark!

The job was a summer fun job for her and she met a lot of people working that summer job. The people she met included the park rangers, the sheriff, park patrons and even members of civic organizations that held seasonal sporting events in the park. They in return came to know her as the young girl with the pink hub caps.

My daughter reminded me that she kept cool by driving fast down the freeway. She was also known for her quick acceleration as she merged onto the freeway. She did it flawlessly. In the meantime, people all over town knew who owned the car with the pink hub caps.

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One day while she was at the kiosk, a sheriff said to her, I saw you getting onto the freeway yesterday. A few weeks later one of the park patrons said, I know your car, I saw it last week. This was an ongoing conversation for my daughter regarding her pink hub caps.

She came home one day and said to me, I can't go anywhere without people telling me they saw my car. Someone in the club said they saw my car. That freaked her out. She became nervous and paranoid.

My daughter said to me, "I'm getting rid of those pink hub caps, people know I 'm coming long before I get there, I don't like that." Well she followed through with her plans. She changed the hub caps to the normal silver color and took all her pink accessories out of the car.

A few weeks later, we were driving down the road and we saw a young man with red hub caps on his car. We looked at each other and laughed. That was an exclamation mark!

My daughter continued to drive the Ford Escort for another four years. She continued to drive fast to stay cool on summer days. She traded in the Ford Escort for a Ford Ranger truck. The Ford Ranger truck is another interesting story.