Car Was a Used Jeep

¶ … car was a used Jeep that I bought during my senior year in high school.

It was a 4-speed manual transmission and more than a few years old, which is why it came at a good price. It also had a few minor problems that needed a little bit of work, which I had done bit by bit because I'd spent most of my savings on the vehicle itself. It was definitely a no-frills vehicle, but it was rugged and I liked the fact that it had a winch attached to the front grill even though I couldn't really imagine when I might need it for anything, but hey, you never, know, right? That's something my dad says all the time..

One of the quirkiest problems was that the engine wouldn't idle without stalling;

as soon as the RPMs dropped to idle speed, the engine would stall out. I'd gotten pretty used to driving it the way it was. It wasn't really difficult, but it took some practice because it required reversing my feet on the pedals at times

As long as the Jeep was moving, everything was fine; but whenever I came to a stoplight, I had to use my right foot to keep a little pressure on the gas pedal to keep from stalling. That meant using my left foot on the brake, especially if the road wasn't perfectly level. The only really tricky part was coming to a stoplight on an hill, because I had to take my left foot off the brake to work the clutch and my right foot had to stay on the gas pedal to keep from stalling. If had to stop on a hill for any reason, I needed one foot on the gas, the other on the brake, and then when it was time to start moving again, I had to engage the emergency brake by hand to keep from rolling; it was a lever on the floorboard between the front seats, right next to the gearshift. Once the transmission was in gear, I simply released the emergency brake and took off. According to my dad, the engine actually ran pretty well, which meant that the stalling problem likely had something to do with the air intake and therefore, was related to the oxygen sensor or the automatic choke. He told me to get it fixed before I fixed anything else.

By the time I'd saved enough to replace either of those two components, I was almost used to driving that way. Since the seat cushions were a little ratty, I replaced them first, which irritated my dad quite a bit. He'd already suggested that I take care of everything functional first, before worrying about cosmetic issues. I tried to tell him that seat cushions had a function too, unlike a paint job, which I agreed was strictly cosmetic.

I was leaving for college in a few more weeks, and hated the thought of having a date sit on the lumpy, scratched up passenger seat cushion. Also, I was starting to like another thing about my idiosyncratic Jeep: nobody else could really drive it, and I had the perfect excuse for not being able to lend it to anybody without actually having to say no.

When my father noticed that I'd installed new fog lights, he asked me whether I'd already taken care of the stalling problem and we had an argument when I responded that just didn't mind it anymore. I explained how used to it I was and how I never had to lend my Jeep to anybody that way, but he got very annoyed and told me it was irresponsible to drive around like that. I explained my reverse-foot-plus- emergency brake and asked him what scenario could possibly become a problem as long as I was the only person who ever drove it. That's when he got mad and raised his voice: "Look, you never know what could happen, OK? Just fix it so you can drive it normally." He apologized for yelling about it the next day and I promised him that I'd take care of it before I improved anything else on the car. I honestly intended to at the time, too.

By the third week of college someone had rummaged through my glove compartment two different times in the dormitory parking lot. I honestly wanted to take care of the stalling problem, but a locking glove box is also something that's functional and not just cosmetic, so I figured I'd just get the glove box lock replaced and then make sure I took care of the stalling thing the very next time I had the money. In any case, I wouldn't be going back home until Thanksgiving, which was plenty of time before my father would be seeing my Jeep again.

When Halloween came around, I had the opportunity to go to a good party at what was supposed to have once been a real haunted house. I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that, but I'd heard it was a pretty interesting house and always a fun party.

The house was even built at the top of a very steep, unpaved hill and from the bottom, it really looked like the classic haunted houses in the movies. The terrain was too rough for regular cars, so the cars all had to park way down the hill and only four-wheel-drives could make it all the way up to the actual property. I was the only one of my friends who happened to drive a 4x4, so I was the designated driver that night.

Six of us crammed into my Jeep and when we finally reached the top of the hill, I was genuinely surprised at how steep that hill really was. There were no guardrails along the road either, and it dropped off very sharply into even steeper grades that no vehicle could possibly manage. It really wasn't a problem, even with my Jeep's stalling issue, but I did make extra sure that the emergency brake was set extra tight and I pulled the handle up higher than normal before taking my foot off the brake when we got out.

The party was a lot of fun, even though I stayed completely sober; I always take my designated driver responsibilities seriously. My friends didn't have to worry about driving, and let's just say that they took full advantage of that fact at the party. By the time we were ready to leave, two of my friends needed help getting into the Jeep and the other two weren't in much better shape themselves.