Andrea's "Cadillac"

Andrea's Cadillac

A couple of years ago, Hill's wife got very sick from her lime disease and Andrea went to Wisconsin to help take care of her. It was the dead of winter (when we had vowed never to cross above the Mason-Dixon Line) so when she arrived I wanted her to have a car with four-wheel drive to negotiate the snow. Wouldn't you know it. The only four-wheel drive available was a fully loaded Cadillac SUV.

The first adventure was getting it started. The station attendant had already closed, Hill was driving away, Scout was in the back seat, it was freezing cold, and there was no place to insert the key. As a matter of fact, it didn't even have a key, just a fob. Since the car wasn't moving, Hill realized something was radically wrong so he came back, and together they discovered it was one of the new keyless push button starters.

Andrea dutifully pressed the brake and pushed the ignition button. As she did, all these gadgets, including the navigation scree emerged from the center of the dash. Amazed, Scout exclaimed, “Grandma! It's a transformer!!”

When she returned home and recounted the story I began to tease her about buying her a bright red Cadillac (her favorite car color.) She good naturedly responded with equal jesting (since she hated big cars and loved her Honda CRV which we'd towed all over the country behind our various RVs.)

As she began to have a harder and harder time walking the dogs because of the pulmonary fibrosis, she also begun to talk about getting a golf cart so she and the dogs could get out and ride around the Village. One day I passed a local golf cart dealer and there was a bright red four place golf cart with red and black seatcover, fancy wheels, a top with side curtains, and a folding windshielf. Even better, the rear seat folded over to make a platform. A transformer! Turned out that one was already sold, but they had a refurbished one coming in that looked just like it at a much cheaper price. I bought it on the spot.

While I was waiting on it to arrive, I went to the local Cadillac dealer and bought two Cadillac crests, one for either side, and a Cadillac key ring.

But wait. There's a back story to all this. When we received the call to the Church in Panama City the church car was woefully inadequate for any kind of youth group activities. The youth group was growing, and Andrea and I talked for what seemed like weeks to me about trading her car for a van that we could use to haul the kids around. I thought we were in agreement about it, so when one showed up on the local Chevrolet dealer's lot I made the trade. Agreement?? No way! When I proudly told her what I had done and what a good deal I'd made, she exploded! In near hysterics she said, “Everything is chaos! Dad has died, we've moved to a strange city and a strange church, and we don't have any stability in our world.” I tried to console her, and said, “But I'm always here.” The second explosion. “YOU'RE THE PROBLEM.”

With that as the back story, let's return to the golf cart. When they delivered it, I backed her Honda out of the garage and parked the golf cart where the Cadillac emblem clearly showed on the side.

I rushed into the kitchen and excitedly told her, “I found a used red and black Cadillac just like you wanted. It's even a transformer!”

Shock would not begin to describe the look on her face as that sunk in, and the Panama City feud began to simmer all over. “At least come look at it,” I begged. "If you really don't like it I'll take it back.” Putting (throwing?) her cooking spoon down, she stormed out into the garage...and stopped dead in her tracks.

Seeing her beloved Honda and the golf cart she had been wanting, she didn't know whether to kiss me, hug me, or hit me. So she did all three...in reverse order.

As a sequal...Before her “Cadillac” all the golf carts in the Village had been plain vanilla white. Now there are a rainbow of colors and one even has as US flag painted on the side.

She always was a pace setter!