Hey Folks! Kelli here -- there was a big event in our family recently, and so I got my mom to write about it! Isn't she great? Anyhow.. here's what she's got to say:
Gone But Not Forgotten—
I thought I would blog about a little bit of Lewis family
history.
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| What this car probably looked like in 1982! |
When
Scott, Kelli’s dad, returned from his mission in July 1982, one of the first
things he did was purchase a brand new car. He was headed to Provo in the fall to resume his studies at
BYU and was going to need the wheels to get there and to get around once he was
there. He and his parents went to
Billings car shopping at an event called Car Wars, (two dealers vying for your
business) and when it was all over, Scott was the proud owner of a 1982
Chevrolet Chevette. He paid $4400. Wow, how times have changed! Scott adorned his car with his home
state license plates, 9er plates even.
This was before 9er drivers had earned themselves the reputation of
being bad drivers.
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| Authentic '9er' Plates |
Scott and I started dating in March 1983 and that is when I
was introduced to the Chevette.
I didn’t have a car at school, so once we were in engaged this car
became our car, and I drove it when I
needed to get my hair cut, shop for my wedding dress, or run other
errands. It had a standard
transmission but that was okay because I had learned how to drive in my
brother’s pick up.
The Chevette
ties to our family’s history because of the significant events that took place
with this car. On January 10th,
1984 Scott officially proposed to me in this car. We had already decided that we were going to get married and
had shopped for and bought the ring, but it was not yet on my finger. When he came to pick me up
that night, after we had gotten in the car, he reached into the back seat and brought
to the front a beautiful red rose.
It was embellished with greenery and baby’s breath and was wrapped in
green tissue paper. I noticed
almost immediately that my ring was there at the base of the rose. He had taken the ring and slipped it up
the stem of the rose and it glittered beautifully in the light. We were officially engaged.
For the first two summers of our marriage we lived in
Cowley. The Chevette was our
U-haul in our moves to and from
Provo. If we couldn’t fit it in,
we didn’t take it. This was true
even when we had Toni and were packing a crib around. We were pretty much minimalists during our years in college.
I suppose most important is that this car brought home from the hospital our
first three children. When Ty, our
third, was not quite two, we purchased our first mini-van and the Chevette
became our second car, driven mostly by Scott from that point on. He would take it deer hunting—yes, this
little hatchback has hauled around a few dead deer in its time.
The car has been in a few scrapes in its 30 year
history. The first one was in the
parking lot of the West Bank Hotel
in Idaho Falls. It was the day
after we were married and we were getting ready to leave on our honeymoon
trip. We noticed someone had
swiped us and left some damage. No
note and no offer to pay for the damage.
The second was in the parking lot of Wymount Terrace at BYU married
student housing. This time there
was a note and an offer to pay for the damage, and he indeed did pay for it to
be fixed. The third time was when it was parked in front of
our house when we lived in Riverton.
No note and no offer to pay.
We fixed each scrape and tried to keep it nice. Eventually the hatchback hinge stopped
working and when I went grocery shopping, I had to prop it open with a stick.
I can’t forget the pepper spray incident. Scott had purchased a can of pepper
spray when he went on an overnight hike with the scouts into bear country. Somehow the can did not get unloaded
from the car with the rest of his stuff.
On a hot afternoon in August the can exploded and splashed pepper spray
all over the interior. It was
terrible. It was a long time
before we could ride in that car without our eyes watering and our fingertips
burning.
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| Where it's been since 2006 |
We put a lot of miles on this car before we bought the
van. There were countless trips
from Riverton to Cowley and to Idaho to see my family. Scott maintained it and would fix it
when it would break down. It
was definitely showing its age when it broke down in the latter part of
2006. It was the clutch and this
was one thing Scott did not know how to fix, but he was determined to learn
how. We pulled it in the garage
and there is sat for a really long time.
He was always going to get to it but never found the time. It sat in the garage during the winters
when our other cars would sit out in the cold. After it sat there for several years I started to look at
other options, like selling it or just junking it. Scott didn’t really want to talk about those options. Obviously he was attached to his first
car and still had every intention of fixing it, but reality started to set in
with him and he knew he needed to do something. The most appealing option was junking it. He wouldn’t have to put any money into
it by fixing it, and he could get salvage cost out of it. So after months of agonizing and
mentally adjusting he agreed it could go.
We secured a car hauler trailer and loaded it up and we were off to
Billings.
These pictures document the last few days of our family’s
first mode of transportation the vehicle that was part of our family for 30
years.
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| Chevette Hearse |
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| All Loaded Up |
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| Ready to Die. |
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| Right before they crushed it! |
