Sunday, November 7, 2010

Nick Names and Classic Cars

So today has been a pretty decent day. Not to much different then every other Sunday. We did go back to our old church today, but other than that, it has been pretty much business as usual around here. The DW had some work to do, the clowns watched t.v and played around the house, and I watched football and did some laundry.

So ok I guess tonight is one of those days where I really have noting interesting or "clever" to write about so I think I'll explain a little bit about the J-Tony and my love for Mustangs.

You see we all have a relative or maybe even a sibling, or family friend that we really look up to growing up, and I was no different. When I was little I had this cousin who I really looked up to. He's maybe nine or 10 years older then me, and maybe that's why I looked up to him, because he could do grown-up things but was still considered one of the "kids". I don't really know the reason that I looked up to him, he just always seemed cool in my childhood eyes. Maybe it was because of a present he bought me on my birthday that I can still to this day remember.

See we used to have pretty big birthday parties when I was little. My birthday was in the summer so I would get to take a friend or two and do whatever I wanted. We would go play putt-putt or go to the public swimming pool, the arcade, or just hang out for the day. My mom would make a special birthday dinner that evening and after wards we would have the party. Back then it seemed like the entire family would come over for the usually ice cream and cake, and of course presents. Now I can't remember exactly which birthday it was, but on one of these birthdays my cousin brought me a gift. It wasn't wrapped in typical birthday paper or anything. It was in a brown paper bag. He handed me a card along with the bag. I opened the card first and began reading. It read something like this....blah,blah,blah...Happy Birthday J-Tony. I put the card down and looked in the bag and there was a hot wheels car. Now I suppose it would make for a good story if I knew exactly which type of hot wheels it was, but I really have no idea. But it was a hot wheels car, and I loved hot wheels. I had a million of them, but no two alike. So to me this was a great gift. I thanked him of course and went on about my party.

It wasn't until later that I put two and two together about the J-Tony, (my names) but I thought that was pretty cool. It was my first real nick name. Not something stupid that my older siblings had made up just to make me cry, but this one was real and I loved it. Now as for the Mustangs. Again  it would have made for a neat story if I'd said that the hot wheels car that I pulled out of the bag on that day was a classic Ford Mustang replica, but again, I really don't remember what type it was. The truth about the Mustang is that that's the type of car I most remember him driving. He had a few Mustang's in his youth, and I remember thinking that's a "cool" car. I guess I'm just glad it wasn't a Ford Pinto or Escort or something like that that he drove because I might be sitting here to this day with a secret love for the Pinto, how embarrassing?  So luckily for me it was one of the great American muscle cars. To this day, I still have a love for the classic Ford Mustang and it has been my dream for as long as I can remember to own a classic 1965/1966. Oh sure I've had a few Mustang beaters in my time, none of which were '65's or 66's.

So that's the story of one of my nick names (there is another, but not nearly as cool IMO)  and my love for the Classic American Muscle car, the Ford Mustang. Now I've never told my cousin about the impact or influence he had on me while we were growing up, but I'm glad he did. It's helped shape who I am, and besides I think it's cool to have a nick name, and who doesn't love classic cars? 

J-Tony

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