Head Out on the Highway

I just read that most Americans are keeping their cars for about 12 years now. While this may be due partly to the economy, it is true that cars last longer than they used to. We just bid goodbye to our old Taurus after almost 15 years, by far the longest we have ever had a car.

It is always sad to see an old car go, at least if it was a relatively reliable car. Is it because people relied on horses for transportation for so many centuries that we somehow have transferred this feeling that our car is a living being with a personality? Or is it just that our cars are such a big part of our lives?

Of course, a car can have a good or a bad personality. Back in the 80’s, we had a Chevrolet Citation that I was only too happy to see go. I’d like to give Chevrolet a citation for “worst car”. It was indeed a lemon and it turned me off ever buying another Chevy again, even though I learned to drive in the early 60’s on a 1956 red-and-white Chevrolet that was about the size of a boat.

Our new car is a dark blue Honda Accord and I am enjoying driving it very much. Driving a new car is one of life’s pleasures and gliding down a recently repaved road, such as Pond Street in Rehoboth or Olney Street in Seekonk, is an additional delight. One thing that persuaded me to look for a new car now was the sudden realization that all the tech stuff in new model cars is only going to get worse, from my technophobic point of view.

I immediately recognized most of the controls on the dashboard in our new car, which still has a CD player, even though the young sales guy assured us that no one listens to them anymore. It is not overburdened with technology I don’t want, such as touch screens. I’m still getting used to the back-up camera but I can see (ha ha) where that is a really good idea. The car has technology that I do want, such as a driver’s seat that adjusts every which way, which is great when you’re short. I also love the feature that shows how many miles you can go before you need gas. So, happy trails to us!

New car or not, summer means vacations. A recent study quoted in the Boston Globe showed how your vacation choices reveal your personality. I haven’t read the original academic article, but it sounds like what a friend of mine calls the “too much grant money, too few ideas” syndrome. According to this study which first appeared in “The Journal of Research in Personality”, extroverts prefer the beach and introverts prefer the mountains. If you like both, does it mean you are well balanced?

I like both the beach and the mountains, up to a point. I get bored with the beach fairly quickly, not because I’m on the quiet side but because I don’t swim. I do like walks on the beach or on short mountain trails. I’ve never been one for hiking. I confess that I find mountains scary in the winter, or I would if I ever went to the mountains in the winter. By the way, all the skiers I’ve ever met seem pretty extroverted to me and it looks like great fun if you are athletic. Mountain climbing, on the other hand, looks to me like torture. I will never understand the attraction of risking your life to climb a mountain.

The study above does say that introverts prefer the woods to wide open areas. I can agree with that when it comes to the Great Plains or being on the ocean with no land in sight. That much open space can be intimidating. But I also love how the beach gives you both landscape and seascape – the ocean waves breaking on the glistening sand, bordered by tall dunes and the wide sky above.

Speaking of the ocean and challenging sports, I can understand the appeal of surfing for those (mostly guys) who are really good at it. It looks like it’s absolutely thrilling if you know what you’re doing. I can recommend a new memoir, “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” by William Finnegan, for those who want to live vicariously. Finnegan is a writer for The New Yorker who recalls his young and adventurous days surfing all over the world. There are few top-notch surfers and even fewer who can also poetically write about it so that outsiders can understand its allure.

Meanwhile, summer is almost over, so the rest of us can either enjoy the last warm days at the beach or head for the hills, depending on our personality.