Deja Vu All Over Again

My 16th birthday was rainy and cold.

In fact, after school I was running up Columbiana Road with some guys on the baseball team--and if you live in Hoover you know that running up the hill from the old tuxedo place to the high school is a pretty steep climb after running from the school around Star Lake 3 times and then back--thinking "This has got to be the worst 16th birthday ever."

I came home. My sister Jilly (who hadn't even thought about higher-order life-living at age 11) was on the front steps and ran inside when my grandmother dropped me off at home after picking me up from school. I don't remember much else that happened except at some point I opened a small package that contained car keys and I was off to show Hal and Jimmy Baker my new wheels: A 1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham. A guy at church who was a head mechanic for a NASCAR driver fixed it up, too. I loved that car.

Granted, the circumstances are WAY different this time. But my Mom surprised another teenager with a car yesterday:



My mom wanted the give Kelsey the car she can no longer drive due to her health concerns, and I wanted to do so in such a way that Mom could see the joy on another kid's face when they got their first car. In this case a 1993 Honda Accord...106,000 miles, but well-kept. Should go another 100,000 miles.

Shelby was also given a pretty darn nice gift: A set of cultured pearls that my dad gave my Mom for Christmas around 1968 or so:



Here's the two of them doing pretty much all they'll be able to do in that car for about 3 months until Kelsey gets her permit:



Anyway, Mom's already seen the pictures. Sent them in an e-mail hours after I arrived back in Dallas yesterday. Just thought I'd tell you all again how Charlotte the Scar has a knack for doing the right thing at the right time in the right way.