1969 Dodge Charger R/T SE By Mark A. Steele - Page 2

My high school friends and I spent our entire school year in that car. It was the most notable token of our school days. My wife and I spent many a night out on a date in that car. It's funny how now she won't even get in it, knowing what she used to do in it.ha ha. Finally the day came in the spring of my senior year, 1987, when I finally hit the gas pedal so hard it hit back. I rammed the car into a cement drainage ditch with me and my two best friends laughing away a hangover. I broke my nose, my friend Lance, cracked his knee and Kelly had his head rattled. But the worst fatality was the old "Dodge." It took a hit so hard it ripped the oil pan right off the block and left the bolts in tact. It bent the frame and shoved the front end through the doors. After a week in bed, I finally faced my Dad. HE NEVER SAID A WORD. I crushed his dream and his pocket book, besides my mom must have at least tried to kill him, and he never once made me feel bad. As I look back no judge in the world would have convicted him if he had killed me on the spot. It is now I realize my Dad does love me more than anything in the world, because I thought it was the car he cared about.

The car sat for over 8 years while I did the Army thing, the college thing, and the married thing, I'm glad to say I'm still doing that. I told myself I would one day earn the respect from my Dad I felt I lost that day and fix the old "Dodge." Don't tell my wife this but 9 years and $6000 later I've finally seen that look in my Dad's eyes. It's got a new motor, new interior and it finally has paint, it was supposed to be red but it turned out to be orange.

I drove it to my Dad's office today. When I pulled into the parking lot I could see him smiling. It was at that very moment I felt the gap was bridged. Through the windshield of that orange charger I've never loved my Dad more. The look in his eyes was not admiration for the car, but it was love for me, well maybe the car a little, but he was loving me.

My high school reunion is next year. I hope to have it red by then. I think the campus police officer, his name was Bobby Joe I'm sure he still remembers me, who used to admire the car from under his red and blue lights will like that color. The moral of the story is use whatever tools it takes, and love your family because they are all that count.

Mark A. Steele

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1969 Dodge Charger R/T SE By Mark A. Steele - Page 2

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