METROPOLITAN DIARY
Little Red Datsun
Dear Diary:
In 1975, my older sister, a single mother in her late 20s, moved from Vermont to an apartment in the West 80s in Manhattan. Because she would no longer need her little red Datsun with a stick shift, she offered to sell it to me.
I was living in Ohio at the time. I took a bus to New York and the next morning we went to Long Island to get the car, which was parked at a friend’s house.
It was my first time driving a stick shift since first learning how, but I was managing OK. I dropped my sister off at work. Her two children were at day care.
I took the car to get the oil changed and then headed back to her place, where I was planning to stay another night before going home.
There were no parking spots on her block and none on the next either. Or the next. Or the next. I was no longer doing OK with the stick shift.
I double parked outside my sister’s building, ran upstairs, grabbed my stuff and left a note: “I couldn’t find a place to park so I’m leaving for Ohio.”
— Susan Creed
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/18/nyregion/metropolitan-diary.html
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