Behind the White Wheel

Behind the White Wheel

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Fifteen Years…

« J'ai rencontré quelques peines, j'ai rencontré beaucoup de joie. C'est parfois une question de chance, souvent une histoire de choix. Je suis pas au bout de mes surprises la dessus y'a aucun doute. Et tous les jours je continue à apprendre les codes de ma route. » Grand Corps Malade

On the 23rd of April 1995, I took the first two pictures of my then newly acquired Mercedes-Benz 180. It was Easter day and my birthday! I had just turned fifteen!



Today, it’s the 23rd of April 2010. I’m turning thirty. As you can see, those are the latest two pictures of my car.



Fifteen years have gone by since the 23rd of April 1995 and I still own this car. As I wrote in the first post on this blog, “I have restored it, I have learned how to maintain it, and I know every single detail in it, every single wire, every single bolt...” well, I will say more this time…For fifteen years this car has been accompanying me…I used it whenever I could…Now that I think of incidents, funny stories etc… I imagine a movie running on the fast forward in my head. I see a lot of pictures, I hear engine, wind and all types of noises, and I smile when I glimpse the faces of my friends and loved ones sitting next to me in the car… It’s simply the movie of my life where this car has been, as I always wanted, a major part of it.
I admit I haven’t thought in 1995 where I will be on the 23rd of April 2010, nor in what condition the car will be. Today, I know I have made and was sometimes obliged to make many choices in my life. I do question some, not to the extent of feeling regret, but I am glad I made all the others. I’m pleased I kept the car in a very good shape and crossed many important milestones in its never ending amelioration process.
On the other hand, I’m gratified I kept my friends around me, met new ones and did my best to create harmony between them all. I’m thankful I belong to a family and to a village I go to whenever the pressure of the daily life becomes unbearable and I see myself as a unique reflection of the crazy society I live in. Those fifteen years shaped my personality; they made out of me the person I am now. The coming years hide surprises, bad ones and good ones, they will shape me again without being able to change everything in me…especially my love for classic cars…
I’ll stop here. You will feel that I deviated from the original objectives of this blog, but I assure you, dear readers, I haven’t; I simply never dissociated myself, and my friends have never dissociated me either, from my car. It simply comes with me… a freaky approach? Don’t push your thinking too far…take me as I am or read the "Behind the Freak: lifestyle and perceptions" blog…

See you again in a similar post in 2025…till then I’ll be discovering the coming chapters of “les codes de ma route”…

2 comments:

  1. :( waw. im speechless. it's as if it were a woman u taking care of it so much. I really love it. And it feels so good to see the difference in the pictures u posted. i've never had any obsession with cars, but i felt some emotion to urs now. lol.

    all the best dude! really ur post is mind blowing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I still read that entry btw. :( I really love it dude.

    ReplyDelete