My 5 cars

With our reliable jeep on which I learned how to drive.

I did something good to help the environment. With global warming and all the talk about the future of our world with pollution menacing our survival, I decided to give up driving. After driving close to a million miles in the USA, both in New York and Oregon, as well as neighboring states, my driver's license expired on my birthday and I finally decided to stop driving. Here in Malta I had a small car which I used simply to drive from my home at St. Julian’s to Hilltop Gardens at Naxxar, twice a week, 5 miles each way, through bumpy roads and potholes, tail gators and bumper to bumper traffic, besides annoying motorcycles who break all possible rules to get their way. Since I am fairly comfortable with the local buses, even though they may be late at times, or never show up at all, it saves the anxiety of fighting through horrible traffic and trying to find a place to park, which has become quite a Herculean task just about everywhere on our crowded island. There is also the benefit of waiting at the bus stop while a friend or a parishioner is driving by and they usually stop give me a ride, which has happened quite a few times so far, especially if I’m not wearing my baseball hat, as people will never recognize me with a hat on.

Spending St Patrick's Day in 1982, painting the jeep in green.

So over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing my 5 cars and share some anecdotes that I remember driving each one of them from 1982 till 2019. The pictures seen today are of a jeep we had at New Hyde Park, and after painting it in white and green, I practiced driving it, mainly to plow snow in our parking lot. That was a lot of shifting the gear, and driving back and forth, raising and lowering the plow - it was excellent practice for me. I never drove in Malta before I went to the USA, and I only got my license in 1982 after 2 memorable classes which I still remember very well. More about that as I review my first car tomorrow.....