I am scared of cars. There. I’ve done said it.
Rip up my old UAW and IUE-CWA union cards, I am afraid of automobiles.
To be precise, I don’t like to ride in cars. I will do anything to get out of it… piss off my family, come up with all sorts of excuses of why I can’t go somewhere, when the truth to be told is that the mere idea of riding inside an automobile to get to Point A from Point B raises up a dread so fierce inside of me that I am fighting down panic until I figure out a way to get out of going.
There really is no good reason to have this phobia. Driving was always much better than riding, but I still did not like it. What kid drops out of Driver’s Ed? Waits two years before taking it again? I didn’t get my license until I was 18. Hey, at least I never buried a car in the back yard. My great grandfather did that; dug a big hole and buried his Model T Ford out on the old farm. He had auto-phobia, too. Or, maybe it was a train phobia? Word has it that he refused to drive over railroad tracks. I don’t know why he buried it. Maybe he couldn’t keep it running?
CORRECTION: I got my great-grandfather’s confused. My dad’s paternal grandfather refused to drive over railroad tracks. His maternal grandfather buried a “Star Car” – not a Model T Ford.
I never trusted cars to keep running. I was always afraid they would break down and leave me stranded. Some did. Even the convertible I bought thinking what I needed was a “fun” car to make driving more pleasurable broke down on me when I took it out of town. Twice it left me stuck out on the highway, waiting on tow trucks to haul it in for repairs. Around town, I was fine… drop the top and crank the tunes, oh yeah… as long I didn’t go more than five miles out of town, I could drive just fine. People teased me about that convertible, told me that I only like to drive on sunny days when it was nice enough to drop the top. They were right. They just did not know the extent of my auto-phobia.
Should I tell the worst of it?
Now this will make me sound plum crazy. Spirits roam the highways. They are not all good. I have seen the shadow of death. There is no other way to describe a black shapeless cloud that floats with a total disregard to air patterns. When you see it, you know what it is.
In town, I did not have those problems. The only spirit that talked to me while I was driving in town was the priest who shot himself in the rectory. He said, “pray for me, I’ve been shot” just after I parked on the side street by the post office in Warren.
1.5 x 6.5 inches… yes, a bookmark.
My last car was an almost new Chrysler PT Cruiser. Maybe I should have bought another convertible, but I bought a hard top in Cool Vanilla thinking it would be a “fun” car, too. It had ye about 14,000 miles on it when I got it. Three years later, when I had to give up driving due to disability, it still had less than 20,000 but then that last year really doesn’t count as I only put gas in the tank maybe two or three times. It sat in the garage so long that mice chewed through the wiring.
Funny thing is, I miss driving. I didn’t want to give up driving because I always felt safer driving myself than I did riding with anyone else. I have absolutely no problem with buses, trains, and even airplanes.
I just HATE riding in cars.
Do you have any weird phobias?
Barnbees 