My parents made the repeated mistake of giving me the car keys, only because it was absolutely essential in the suburbs. I could no more walk to the grocery store there than I can now to Roxbury. But then I moved to college; I gave it all up.
I gave up driving because, among other things, I didn’t have to. In Boston I can get from my apartment to the beach via public transportation. I can walk to Trader Joe’s. But this week I found that despite my persistent nausea, moving vehicles aren’t all bad.
Arizona to Maine is about as close to the longest stretch of America you can muster. My friend Lisa drove it with her brother a couple of months ago so that she would have a car at school in Maine, which is a very practical thing. She lent this car to my friends and myself this week, which was less practical, but hugely fun. I put my environmental concerns aside as I was driven to school &-&- radio up, windows down. We had only vague ideas of what to do with such a gift. Where should we drive? None of us could really even fit a car into our schedules, much less into the parking spots around my apartment. Too bad, of course, we didn’t have the little darling for Allston’s own real estate gauntlet: Move-in day. Move-in day, Sept. 1, sees the whole neighborhood scrambling for a car. I’ve experienced Allston renters make promises of a heaven filled with virgins and alcohol in exchange for a mere hour with a car.
My roommate generously drove us around Boston. While immersed in motor vehicle euphoria, I spent quite a sum. At the grocery store we bought things by the gallon. Stocked up on more-or-less delicate liquids, those that come in glass bottles and those that don’t. We bought mineral waters and six-packs and wine like it was a Friday not a Tuesday. We bought cans of soup I probably won’t eat until September and multiple boxes of cereal. We went to stores that sell toilet paper in packages the size of Great Danes. We hoarded as though it was the Soviet Union and not Brookline. The whole thing was a little like a magazine quiz. “If you lived in the city and had a car for the week . . . ” Frankly, we were a little overwhelmed. We could have gone anywhere. Then again, perhaps not.
Class, most stores and recreation are within walking distance from my apartment. There is also the Zipcar option, which seems for whatever reason always slightly out of reach and not just because I can’t drive. The last night we had the car we ran into the inevitable problem of parking and Lisa drove away with a $40 ticket. I was torn, but at the same time, a little glad we were giving it up.
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