I had just bought a new car. Okay, not new, but used, and was on the Interstate. The windows were up and the radio was off.In the silence I listened for sounds.
The sound of mechanical problems, the sounds of an airplane chasing you, pretty much any sound.
And smells too. Like oil, transmission fluid, all that good stuff.
Buying a ten year old car can be nerve-racking to say the least but making sure it is up to snuff is a must. My brother thinks I'm delusional and paranoid. But I invested in a AAA card none the less. It's been a few weeks now and the Subaru Forester is doing just fine. It survived a five hour trek to Maryland and is slated for another lengthy haul to South Carolina next weekend. On the way to Maryland, the boys watched a DVD for the better part of the drive... so I drove in silence once again.
The return trip had them sleeping for a a better part of it, and again, I drove in silence.
My dad used to drive in silence. And it used to drive me bat shit crazy. "Turn on the radio at least," I'd think to myself. "Talk radio even," I'd think. Just give me some static to counterbalance all the quietness that enveloped the car. These were the days before Walkman and iPod my friends.
I remember feeling liberated when I got my first Walkman because it meant silence-free road trips, even if it was only a radio version and I had to scan for local rock stations in central Pennsylvania or the Jersey Shore when all I really wanted was some Minor Threat.
And yet now I have become one of them now.
One of the silent drivers...
