For those who have traversed S. Kent Street near 20th Street in South Arlington for the last few years, we now pause to remember our old "Gray Car." What may have been an icon or an eyesore is now gone. This 1985 Plymouth Caravelle moved into the neighborhood early in 1998, after my father had to stop driving. A good second car for us, it led an undistinguished life through the rest of its teens and through the early years of the 21st century, only really came into its own at the tender age of 23 [not sure what that is in human years!].
At that time, it became our daughter's car for getting to Wakefield and back and around town, and after I failed to find the purple paint she wanted, my daughter and her friends (including several from the 'hood--one of whom always called it the "comfy car") went at it with many cans of spay paint and their imagination. Since then, its distinctive presence on the street has brought smiles to many (even being sighted in Georgetown once!), frowns to some. More recently, the Gray Car only came to life in the summers (too old to go away to college), and now I sadly report that, though still drivable, it has been replaced (by a newer, but un-decorated, car that my mother can now no longer drive) and--in this photograph--you can all bid adieu, as it is raised high and taken away from us towards an uncertain future at a charity auction (thank you WETA). However, if you miss it and want to see it in its former glory, it does still live on in Google Maps Street View:
It is easy to look up information about a car, but each car has its own story, which is much harder to learn about. So this is one such story. For the Internet facts, the first Google hit, is, of course, Wikipedia, but a little more information available from AllPar.com. I have tried to find out what the production run might have been but have had no success, leave alone finding out the most salient fact: how many of those were still operating in June 2011, 26 to 27 years later!
The Internet was good for learning one thing I never knew. What a "caravel" was:
The caravel of the 15th and 16th centuries was a ship with a distinctive shape and admirable qualities. A gently sloping bow and single stern castle were prominent features of this vessel, and it carried a mainmast and a mizzen mast that were generally lateen-rigged. Although the caravel had already been in use for hundreds of years, it developed into an incredibly fast, easily maneuverable vessel by this time, which was noticed by eminent people.
Addendum: Check out the Internet Movie Cars Database although they claim most of those pictured are 1986 models.
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