When I was a kid, we had a 1978 Honda Civic. You could park that thing in a glacier overnight, and it would still start in the morning.
I've been a Honda man ever since. That car sat outside on some very, very cold nights, and it always started. I never could have delivered for my Milwaukee Sentinel paper route on days like this without relying on that car. I was so impressed by it I've bought Hondas ever since. Nothing is as good as it once was, but as far as I can tell, Honda still holds up.
I nick-named it "The Silver Eagle" when I drove it around in high school. Of course at that point the thing was almost a decade and a half old. It was a no frills ride. AM radio. Manual choke. Semi-manual transmission. It was a two speed. At 25 MPH you shifted into second gear. Funny, that feature never quite caught on industry wide.
When it gets so bitter cold like this, I always think of that old car. It never let us down. Here's to you, Silver Eagle... wherever you are. I'll be thinking of you when I head out to the parking lot this morning, and turn the keys on my '05 Civic. It's an automatic, and it even has a CD player, but it's the same DNA, and it too... always starts.
emails: vvitrano@todaystmj4.com
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