This is only the third day of June, 2009 but we have had enough bad news to last a lifetime. On Monday of this week, General Motors filed for bankruptcy. At about the same time, Air France lost one of its airbuses on a trip from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Both of these events have slowed me down quite a bit.
In the case of General Motors, I can recall that my first automobile was a 1931 Chevrolet coupe which I bought in 1937 for $50. I drove it for two years or more and sold it my friend Tallis Lockos for $50. Obviously I did not make a bundle on the sale of that car but, as you can see, it held its value quite well.
Then I bought a used 1937 Chevrolet which contained a smooth-riding feature called “knee action.” This meant that the front wheels were individually suspended as opposed to being mounted on an axle. The “knee action” produced a pretty good ride but keeping the wheels aligned was a bit of a problem.
When I enlisted in the American Army, I had become convinced that World War II was going to go on for quite a while. So I asked my father to sell my car to a fellow named Louie. Lou was a clerk for John Gualdoni, our local grocer. Louie gladly paid me the $300 that I asked for my car because he knew that no new cars would be made for a long time to come. Selling that car was a grievous mistake on my part. In 1945, when there was a honeymoon to be taken, I was without transportation and no one volunteered to loan me a car. Eventually, my brother Earl volunteered his car, after I assured him that it would be taken care of without undue risk.
In the years following the war, I was loyal to General Motors cars, driving Chevys, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, one Buick, and, finally, in 1986, a Cadillac coupe. In the GM line, the only car that I had skipped was a small Cadillac named a La Salle. But the fact of the matter is that the two biggest cars that I bought in the General Motors line were a Buick and a Cadillac, and they were trouble from day one.
By the latter half of the 1990s, it appeared to me that Chrysler was the car for my use. I bought two Chryslers before I quit driving, and my wife also bought two Chryslers. The car we now use is going on nine years in age but the choice of Chrysler was a good one in that this car has never given us any trouble whatsoever.
Now, to replace the Chrysler, there is a choice to be made. For reasons unknown to me, I have never bought a Ford product. I suppose they are nice cars but one way or another, they have never turned me on. My wife, Miss Chicka, who is adept at computer research, has concluded that, in all likelihood, our next car should be a Honda Accord. They seem to get glowing reports from all sides, including one of my daughters and her husband. But the fact that a World War II veteran is considering buying a Japanese car makes for big news. In the early days of the manufacture of Japanese cars, they were considered “junky.” For several years, that title no longer applies to the cars made by the Empire of Japan. On the other hand, the cars that have been turned out by American manufacturers in recent years are, in truth, not of high quality.
General Motors has launched an advertising campaign in the last day or so that tells us that their cars are “green” and that we will all want to buy them. In effect, they are starting from scratch. I suspect that it will be somewhere on the order of three to five years before the worth of GM cars is established. In that time, I suspect that we will have overcome our trauma about buying a Japanese car, and, for all I know, I may be an angel by that time.
The second event in this grim news essay was the loss of the Air France Airbus with something on the order of 228 people aboard. The accident happened somewhere east of Natal, Brazil, which is a spot very familiar to American fliers. For a long time, to get supplies to the European theater, particularly aircraft, there was a tortuous route to follow. That route started in Miami and proceeded to Borinquen Field in Puerto Rico. Then the next stop was Georgetown in what was then known as British Guyana. From Georgetown, the next stop was either Natal or, if the fuel was running low, perhaps it would be Belém or even Fortaleza. From Natal, it would be a long hop over the south Atlantic Ocean to Ascension Island. From Ascension, there was another ocean hop which took our airplanes to Accra, which is now in the territory of Ghana.
Taking one thing with another, I flew through Natal, Brazil, on three occasions. Two of those occasions were when I was the aerial engineer on flights returning from Europe to bring aircraft that were to be refurbished, including one for a war bond tour. The remaining flight was as a passenger returning to the European theater. It has been my good fortune to know a few Brazilian people. They are welcoming and genuine. The last time that I made an appearance in Natal, Brazil was in the early part of 1945. That would have been 64 years ago. But nonetheless I feel a brotherhood with those who fly over ocean routes. The sea is entirely unforgiving. An accident there could claim the lives of a good many people. And so it was in this case, where 228 people lost their lives on a flight from Rio to Paris.
All of us hope that General Motors should succeed and in time we may put the memories of the loss of the Air France airliner in the back part of our mind. But I guess one of the cardinal rules is that in business as in flying, mistakes are punished in a cruel way. Unfortunately, those of us on the sidelines can do nothing to help the situation. But tomorrow may bring better news, and perhaps in time, we will all smile again. And so there is no denying that in the first part of June, 2009, grim news abounds.
E. E. CARR
June 3, 2009
Essay 389
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Kevin’s commentary: Hell yeah to Accords! I believe the “glowing review” from Mom referred to my childhood Honda Accord, whose name was Larry. It’s also possible that she was talking about her hybrid Accord, who knows. What I do know is that as of 12/4 when this is being posted, both cars are still in our possession and still running!
Pop has a pretty prodigious list of cars that he’s chewed through in his time. I wonder why he didn’t just find one he liked and stick with it, but perhaps this is a silly idea for someone who has made it to age 90. Surely even I would get tired of my Accord by then.
For the record, Pop has quite the distaste for the Accord that he wound up buying. See “The Honda Bump Enhancer” for more.