the Hoopty

Aaron and I were young and poor when we got hitched. We were crazy to marry under such circumstances, but love is blind and oblivious. Our plan was to spend the week after our wedding vacationing in Vail, CO. Only problem-- neither of us had a working car. I knew my dad would let us take one of his for the honeymoon, but lucky for us, we didn't have to ask to borrow anything. Let me introduce you to THE HOOPTY.


This beautiful 1983 Buick Le Sabre was Aaron's grandpa's car and it became our new baby!!! I didn't even know about it until our wedding day. When Aaron told me we would be driving it to Vail, I was stoaked! It was a boat... so it was kind of like going on a cruise and a vacation at the same time. Seriously, it was a radical car. It was decorated at our reception and we drove off with "Just Married" written in shoe polish on the back windshield. I think a lot of our friends were teasing us, but honestly I did not care. I was happy to be married to such a great guy and the car was gravy. I am totally laughing now that I was so thrilled about it. But thrilled, I was.

Our drive to Vail was suh-weet. The Hoopty is the most comfortable car in the entire world. It had two long couches for seats and they were so cushy! Somewhere in the mountains between Utah and Colorado, we got stuck in terrible traffic. There was a bad accident in one of the canyons and we were literally at a stand-still for about two hours. For others on the road, it was probably frustrating, but Aaron and I were as chill as chill could be. We turned off the car, pulled out a honeymoon basket given to us by my aunt (thanks Karen!) and kicked up our feet. We had a week-long honeymoon to look forward to, lots of cash in our pockets and not a care in the world. We rolled down the windows, read cards from the reception, tried to peg each other in the face with caramel popcorn (something that was in the basket) and talked about how perfect our wedding day was.

When we finally were able to get out of the canyon, we were in desperate need of gas (the gas gage didn't work, so we were kind of paranoid!) We made it to a gas station and filled up. While we were there, a man approached Aaron at the gas tank and started talking to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I saw that he shook Aaron's hand and wished him good luck. Aaron came back to the car smiling. He said that the guy slipped him a $20 bill while shaking his hand.. How nice! We laughed so hard that he saw our car and the "Just Married" sign and knew we needed some help. So awesome.

*One big discrepancy we have with this story is the length of the generous man's hair. I swear, he had a long braid down his back. Aaron says no possible way. Ten years later, both of us are sticking by our story.

We have many fond memories with the Hoopty. It was such a good car to us and never gave us any problems... (aside from the occasional empty gas tank.) We drove it for 9 months before we were able to save enough money to pay cash for our Honda Accord. I was fortunate enough to land a great job public speaking in front of large corporations. I traveled all over Utah County in the Hoopty and was proud of my boat. I got paid 50 cents for every mile I drove in that thing-- a small reimbursement for gas and "maintenance" on the vehicle. After driving it around all day long everyday, we made some serious money on that car!

Many of my co-workers made fun of me, but my boss loved that I was ghetto-fabulous. I worked for United Way of Utah County, which is a non-profit organization. I would often take the CEO of these large corporations out to lunch to discuss the company's donation to United Way and I would drive them to and from the restaurant in the famous Hoopty-mobile.

One particular afternoon, I drove a nice middle-aged business man and his partner (a female) to a benefit luncheon. He sat next to me on the bench seat and said, "Wow. Your clock is really big." (it was an old school clock built in the dash-- it was the size of a softball.) I laughed and told him I have no excuse to ever be late. And then I turned around to the woman and said, "You could probably fit up here on this bench with us if you want to." When I got back to the office, my boss pulled me into his office and closed the door. I thought I was about to get in trouble for being so casual with big clients. He sat me in front of his desk and played aloud a message on his voice mail. I smiled as I heard the CEO and his partner thank United Way for a delightful lunch. They specifically mentioned the "limo service" to and from the benefit and said that it was refreshing to know that all the money they were about to donate wasn't going to the employees paychecks. After we listened to the message I was asked to stay on full-time... and I owed it all to the rockin' grandpa car. It will always have a special place in my heart. May it rest in peace!