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The Mighty Ford Taurus part 2
2009-11-02
When I was first given the beautiful blue Ford Taurus, the paint was
just starting to fade, and the scratches on the hood and bumper were
starting to show, but despite this there was always something very
majestic I found about the car, even as its appearance began to suffer
more and more with age. A few months after Mommom had passed away away,
I got into an accident in the car, and although nobody was hurt,the car
was in very bad shape. Almost everybody told us that is was not worth
it to savage it and that it was more than totaled, but my mother and I
came to the conclusion that we weren't ready to let go of the beautiful
blue Ford Taurus just yet. After some hefty repairs, the car was up and
running once more, purring away. I tried my best as soon as I got it
back to fix up its appearance. I would sit outside for hours
meticulously covering over the scratches with touch-up paint, and trying
to polish the dole faded areas on the body. I washed and vacuumed it
whenever I go the chance and the beautiful blue Ford Taurus reached a
point where it looked almost as good as the day I got it, despite the
accident. Unfortunately soon after that, just like with any older car,
parts started to go. First the tires, than the headlights, than the
brakes, than the starter, than the exhaust. It got to the point where
every time I brought the car into my mechanic, he would diagnose it with
a new problem. By the time I entered my senior year of college, a lot
of money had been poured into the beautiful blue Ford Taurus and it was
soon getting to the point where I was the only one who saw any beauty
in the car. The paint had begun chipping and peeling so bad on the
trunk, that it looked like the car had leprosy. The effects of living
in New Brunswick also began taking their toll on the car, the bumpers
were badly scratched and nicked, and it was at this point friends began
really joking about its dismal appearance. It was also around this time
when the car began making all sorts of horrible sounds. Then, a few
weeks ago, the car was in another accident. This one far less serious
than the first, but I knew deep down the moment it happened, that it was
time to let go of the beautiful blue Ford Taurus that had been given to
me out of the kindness of my grandmother's heart. And so I did. The
car was towed off to an auto-body where it sat for about a week before I
had the chance to go back to it one final time. When I got there, I
knew I wanted to photograph the beautiful blue Ford Taurus, so I would
have something to remind myself of it. It wasn't that I wanted to
remember the hectic point in my life where I had owned it, but it was
more that I wanted to honor and remember what the car meant to me, my
family, and most of all my grandmother. For this reason I wanted to
photograph it in ways that made it look majestic and beautiful. At the
same time though, I didn't want to pretend that the car, like my
grandmother, hadn't been through a lot, because it had. It had bruises
and scars and although it left my life far earlier than I wanted, it had
always been very very good to me. I still haven't let go of it, and
probably won't for a long time. At least I know I can always always
think back on the 16 years of memories I have of the beautiful blue Ford
Taurus, that my grandmother bought brand new from the dealer in 1993,
and smile, because it reality, it really wasn't so much the car that I
am going to miss, as it is the memories of my grandmother driving that
car, majestic and proud.
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