October 2005                                                         The Megaphone                                                                    Page 7

From Mercedes to the Cavalier

by Karen (Stine) Hollies

  In discussing cars, I had mentioned our Mercedes, the undependable vehicle that consistently had to be towed. I also mentioned that we had traded it even for a Chevy about 7 years after we had bought her. And -- we had shouted for joy.
  

  What I had neglected to say was that we traded it in on a Chevy Cavalier. This was the first year they had come out with a Cavalier. It had a very small motor but front wheel drive. Slow -- very slow -- at climbing the hills in northern Ohio, the little machine chugged along, never missing a beat.
  

  I drove the Cavalier to work five days a week. Only those who live in the heart of the snow belt can grasp what that drive was like in the winter. In blizzards I would fight disorientation as the car slid through the darkness with snow relentlessly building on the car and no tire tracks to follow, no lights to be seen in the country. Yet, the little vehicle valiantly plodded along, never failing.
  

  One morning the wind chill was below -50° and people were cautioned not to go out. The Cavalier made it just fine. On the way home from work, I saw that a window-high drift was across the road and weighed the possibilities of the car being stalled versus trying to do a U turn and heading back. I shifted to first and plowed on through.
  

  My boss at the hospital was so impressed with the reliability of the Cavalier, she bought one. A few months later she was stopped for speeding by a local policeman. He told her she was doing 60 up a hill. She replied, "In this Cavalier? Up a hill? You've got to be kidding!" Even he had to laugh, and he gave her a warning.
   

  In our oldest daughter's senior year of college in South Bend, we gave her the Cavalier to drive. By that time, it had 138,000 miles on it and was still chugging away. She began to have carburetor problems and found that if she opened a certain area with a pencil, the car would go and it continued to serve her well until she graduated. She used it all summer in a temporary job, and we sold it when she left to work in Austria.
    

  It was with sad hearts that we watched the little car being driven away. Unlike that temperamental European vehicle, the Cavalier just kept working. We never regretted the trade. When Mary, our daughter, returned from Austria, she bought a new car -- a Chevy Cavalier -- and it gave her many good miles.
     

Karen (Stine) Hollies '54
Virginia Beach, VA

Autumn's Fashion

    
The season offers
Her beauty and elegance
Dressed in fall costumes.

by Cindy (Benedict) Odom '69

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