David M. Green: Purveyor of fine humour

Tag: Seca

  • No car winter

    Yes, not quite as bad as “nuclear winter” but “no car winter”, or indeed, a no car year-long lifestyle is something that takes a little adjusting to. Hello, I’m David M. Green.

    This month marked the end of another motoring era, for me anyway. I’ve been without access to my 2001 Toyota Corolla Seca since I moved to Melbourne in February. However, just recently my Mum sold it for me. So even if I were to return to Adelaide, it would be unlikely that I’d be able to drive it, obviously because it now belongs to someone else.

    Had a lot of good times in/with that car…

    I originally got it because my 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca was beginning to consume about the same amount of oil as petrol, and there was a chance that I’d have to commute regularly to Murray Bridge, when I applied for a radio job there. So Mum wanted me to have a safer car. She helped me with the finances too, as this was during an extended period of unemployment (after GameTraders but before SAFM).

    I recall I hated it at first. There wasn’t enough room around the pedals, everything was too sensitive and at just the wrong angle compared to my previous car, so I had to develop different muscles in my legs. It took some getting used to. The other big drawback was its lack of a clock. Can you believe that? A car made in 2001 didn’t have a clock in it! Ridiculous.

    I had my first kiss in that car, amongst other things I won’t get into right now. Good times… Ohohoho… VERY good times…

    I also delivered many a pizza. Fun times.

    Had some not so good times too. Like the time I spun out on my way to a radio job interview in Berri. I was extremely lucky not to total the car, or myself, or anyone else. Amazingly there was no damage. I just got out, had a drink of water, reassessed my life, and continued driving for another 2 hours to the job interview. Driving is dangerous. I never told my parents about that. I didn’t want them to be worried if I actually got the job and had to commute regularly back to Adelaide on weekends. It doesn’t matter if they find out now. They don’t read my blog anyway!

    With my previous car, the ’86 version, I had a quirk of keeping track of the wildlife I’d destroyed with the car, and so on the side window I kept miniatures, just like an aircraft after a successful bombing raid. By the end I had 5 little bird stickers. And before you start writing angry letters to the RSPCA, may I point out I’m not a monster. It was more a form of remembrance. I certainly wasn’t TRYING to run over those birds. Well, definitely not the first few anyway.

    But not being one to heavily repeat material, I didn’t bother doing that for the ’01 model. I did do something with stickers, although not as interesting. I placed radio station stickers on my rear bumper. However, to be awarded a coveted bumper space, I had to have operated the radio control panel at that station. Hence the two station stickers below:

    Although I also appeared on Fresh 92.7FM, 891 ABC Adelaide and the Triple M Network during the time I had that car, I didn’t actually operate the panel at any of those stations. Hmm… specific, aye? Aside from the sentimentality, the bumper stickers also really came in handy when identifying my highly popular mass-produced car in a crowded parking lot. So it was also practical.

    I also left all my Flinders University parking permit stickers on the front windscreen, even though the most recent one expired in February 2008. The 2005 one was never valid for that car. I peeled it off the ’86 model and stuck it on the ’01 model when I bough it! Just for decoration.

    But anyway, I live in Melbourne now and I’m without a car. In fact I’ve only driven a car once since February. I can’t say I miss the expense. However, I do miss driving. Driving’s fun! There have been a few times when I’ve found myself late at night waiting 15 minutes for a tram to take me home on a 45 minute tram-ride, and really wishing I had my car. Sometimes it’s just great to hit the open road on a long drive, ’80s New Wave music blasting out the windows; something I did regularly in Adelaide.

    But a car is an unnecessary luxury in Melbourne. You don’t really need one. It would be a lot harder to do without a car in Adelaide. I love the trams. Although a few more east-west lines in the northern suburbs would be nice. See! I knew this would happen! You’re bedazzled by the marvelous Melbourne metro transport network at first, but after you live here for a while you start to discover its limitations. Happens to the best of us.

    I think the biggest problem is that grocery shopping is limited to what I can carry. That’s a bummer.

    So in conclusion, I’m getting by without a car (and a job for that matter), although I do occasionally miss the benefits of time-saving as well as the sheer pleasuring of driving. But you know, good for the environment and all that crap. Al Gore, you’re okay.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Adelaide Driver

  • Where’s my 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca?

    No, no, it wasn’t stolen… although it was broken into a few times… I sold my 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca in late 2006. It popped back into my mind recently, however.

    The other day I was out and about on an errand and I saw an early ’90s gold Volvo station wagon parked on the side of the street. My Mum used to have one just like it. She got it in 1994 and had it until she got a Honda Odyssey in 1999. Just as I was driving past I glanced at the number plate and slammed on the brakes when I noticed it read “VGM861.” Good God! That’s ACTUALLY my Mum’s old car! I pulled over so I could get out and take a closer look. A little rusted and scratched here and there but essentially how it looked when I last saw it 10 years ago. I wonder how many owners it’s had since then? Had a lot of good times in that car, driving (or being driven, rather) to family Christmases and Easters and birthday parties. It was one of those Volvos with 7 seats. 5 regularly placed ones, as you’d expect, but then 2 in the boxy back part that folded up and actually faced backwards. I remember one time when I was about 7 my then friend Elliott Jenkins and myself were sitting in the back making rude hand gestures at the drivers of trailing cars. Most of them seemed amused. One humourless woman actually followed us home just so she could inform my Mum what we were doing… Jesus, can you believe that?

    So naturally I’ve been on the look out for MY old car. Every now and then I see one, but on closer inspection there have always been subtle differences that indicate it’s a fraud; a different front grill, automatic transmission, no dents where I remember them (no new owner would have bothered to FIX them, don’t be ridiculous). I had some good times in that car…

    I got it in 2003. I didn’t learn on it, because I found learning on a manual too much to begin with, but after I mastered the basics I took it on and drove solo as soon as I got my P-plates. There are two main things I recall about my first solo drive. 1. I turned on the radio and listened to “Bad” by Michael Jackson, and 2. I had an erection. Good times… I loved that car… purely as a friend, of course. I had a Grand Theft Auto Vice City sticker on the rear window that I swiped from GameTraders Micham when I was working there. I also had 5 or 6 little bird silhouettes stuck on a side window, as if my car was a Lancaster bomber, one bird for each bird I killed with the car. All accidentally of course. I’m not a monster. I still remember most of the things that were wrong with it, that you kind of just get used to. The windscreen wipers had a short circuit and would go bananas if you had them on the low setting, so it was either all the way or not at all. Plus the air conditioner switched was busted, so, although it worked, would only work on the number 2 fan setting, and with much jiggling, occasionally number 3.

    I even made a sketch about it, appropriately titled “The 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca.” Although I basically ripped off “Back to the Future” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” It came 3rd place in the 2005 Marion Council’s “Square Eyes” Short Film Competition, earning me a $40 Bunnings gift voucher. As I had no need for any of their fine hardware products, I sold the vouchers to my Dad (for $35… cheap bastard… na, he’s okay). Check it out… the sketch, not the vouchers…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp68CEAWKss&feature=player_profilepage

    A little crappy by my current sketch-craft standards… but still entertaining, to me at least… Well Seca, you’re out there somewhere… assuming you haven’t been crushed into a cube and sold for scrap. Maybe one day I’ll see you again. It really was a great car. A pleasure to drive. I really noticed some things when I upgraded to my current 2001 Toyota Corolla Seca. The old one had a lot more foot room next to the clutch (which I badly miss) and the hollow steering wheel made the dashboard much more visible (granted my new car comes with an air-bag, so I guess that’s a fair trade off). And the accelerator was much less sensitive in the ’86 car. You could suddenly flatten it to the floor and everything was still smooth. Do that in the ’01 model and it’s like you’re riding a mechanical bull. It certainly sold me on manual transmission too. I wouldn’t drive anything else now. The added advantage of manual is you can push-start it if you have a flat battery. I had to do that once at Marion Shopping Centre when I accidentally left my lights on. That was a lot of fun! Good thing my good friend Ted was there to push. It was quite a sight; an Englishman pushing me around a crowded parking lot with me shouting “come on!” as the car struggled to turn over…

    The 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca. Sure, it had been broken into and egged on numerous occasions and I had to fill it up with almost as much oil as I did petrol by the end of my tenure with it… but what an automobile. I absolutely loved it.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Anybody seen it?