The Little Red Datsun

I can still remember the first time I noticed cars. I was 6 years old and I was sitting outside of my local pool (basically my second home during the summer time) waiting for my mother to pick me up and take me home so I could indulge in hours of play time on my PlayStation. I was sitting on a bench and right in front of me was an empty parking space. As I was sitting there, a red Datsun 240Z pulled up and occupied that space right in front of me, almost as though it was meant to be there. The man who was sitting in the drivers seat got out and walked by me without a second glance. He must have noticed my expression because I was staring at this car like it was the Mona Lisa. I had never seen something so beautiful in my life.

After he left his car I started examining the little red Datsun. I walked around the car once, twice, three times, four times.......

I had to have walked around that car 100 times by the time my mother came to pick me up in her little blue Mazda. She strapped me into the back seat and we set off on our merry way. My eyes were on the little red Datsun all the way out of the parking lot. I legitimately stared at it until I physically couldn't see it anymore (a small hedge got in the way).

The second I got home I jumped on my dad's Dell desktop and started to scour the web for information about this car I saw. I typed "Datsoon 240S" in the search bar (I was six and I couldn't spell that well) but Google knew what I meant and displayed multiple websites about the car. I read about it for hours, learning every specification I could despite not knowing what half of them meant.

The rest is history. Over the years I gathered knowledge on cars from around the world and all they're specifications. When I learned how to use power tools (safely), I started fixing cars for fun. I became an encyclopedia of knowledge for cars and even today I still get excited when I see a car I've never seen before.

Cars have been a huge part of my life and I have some of my best friends because of cars. My friends and I gather around a car to fix it instead of gathering around a campfire. It brings us together. It gives us common ground despite our different upbringings. Driving gave me happiness in dark times. Driving gave me pleasure when I had none.

This is my story, what's yours?

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