Bus pass anyone?

Teens are here to destroy our vehicles.  This is why my kids have to buy their own cars, wreck their own cars, fix their own cars, insure their own cars and fill their own cars with gas.  I'm also hoping that they are learning from this experience however, I'm starting to wonder?  

I can tell you that every one of my kids have been in a wreck except for 2 and I'm still waiting on those.  Usually these accidents occur in the first year of driving and in the case of my daughter Maggey she just managed to crash within the first 10 days of getting her license. This was a particularly memorable crash because of a few things.  

First, the crash occurred close to home (only about 4 blocks away) and second, the way that it happened is extra special.  Maggey was borrowing my pristine condition Explorer "just for a minute" when she rounded a corner near our home.  She saw the entire high school baseball team across the street and being the friendly gal that she is, she hung her noggin out the window and hollered a friendly "hello" to the team as she waved.  Apparently, her eyes strayed from the road and she veered to the right taking out the entire passenger side of my no longer pristine vehicle, flattened a tire and killed a trailer.
   


Maggey was in a tich of a panic and drove straight home (as any good driver should after a hit, you run)  She came inside in quite a state of panic, found me and proceeded to tell me of her little accident.  I said, "Oh Maggey, it can't be that bad.  Let's go check it out."  I walked outside to find my auto had been turned into Mater (the truck on Car's the movie).  One of the tires literally was off the rim and swiftly going flat.  The passenger side from the front to the rear was indented by about a foot and parts were missing.  The cherry on the cake of the day is that while we were standing there the axle (or something like that) dropped out from the bottom and clunked onto the driveway.  

As I watched my daughter sobbing and my vehicle disintegrating before my eyes, only two words came to mind.  I looked at Maggey and said, "Well damn".  Then I did the unforgivable......I started to laugh.  It was just so darn ugly.  Maggey let me know that it wasn't funny.  I knew it wasn't funny but do you laugh or cry?  So.........I asked a few important questions like"

Me: Maggey, so what did you hit?

Maggey: A parked trailer.

Me:  What happened to the trailer?

Maggey sobbing:  I don't know!  It was just flying everywhere.

Me: Where are the missing pieces of our car?

Maggey: Over on the road by the pieces of the trailer.

Me: And why exactly did you leave the scene of the accident?

Maggey:  Well duh! No one was driving the trailer and it was parked and no one was there so I didn't know who to talk to.

Me: Huh.  How did you get home on a flat tire that's falling off?

Maggey:  I don't know.

Me: As I look at the damage on this side of the car I'm wondering one thing....when you hit the trailer on the front bumper, why did it take two doors, a side panel and the back bumper to stop?

Maggey: I don't know

Me: OK then.

So Maggey's dad (who had just walked up and was surveying the damage) took her back to the scene of the accident to find the owner of the trailer and call a cop.   He also said he found our car parts and the trailer spread out for about a 200 yards down the street.

The ending of this story goes like this:  Maggey could no longer afford auto insurance because the car was a total loss.  Maggey went down to the drivers license division 10 days after the exact date that she got her license and voluntarily surrendered her license so that she was no longer able to drive and therefore, did not have to carry insurance.  As she handed over her license to  the lady at the DMV, this lady said, Honestly, in all of my years, I have never had anyone ever surrender their license. Interesting."

These are pictures documenting this day.

Maggey showing me the accident

Maggey after gathering a couple
of the pieces to our car

The guy that came to see if the car would drive
after I told him I was pretty sure it wouldn't

The car being towed away, never to return

Maggey did get her license back about a year after she surrendered it.  She has been a bit gun shy about driving but saved her money and purchased a 1986 Toyota Corolla for a mere $750.  It was a cherry.   She drove it around the block and it died.  

Maggey sold the car a month later to a guy who wanted to go on a date with her.  In all fairness to Maggey she told this fellow that she bought the car a month before, drove it around the block and it would start but that it didn't run well and she wasn't very happy with the car.  He bought it anyway.  She sold it for $600, lost $150 and never went on a date with him.  She was glad it was gone.  Perhaps Maggey and cars just don't mix.

As a treat I would like to give you a short pictorial tour of some of the junkers my kids have invested in.  I'm sorry to report that I am missing pictures of many of the cars I would like you to see. I couldn't find a picture of two of Whitey's trucks that I would like to show you. The first one was a truck he named "Old Blue" that he purchased for $200.  He gave it a good wash and wax and bam!  It was a cherry.  He sold it for $400 and doubled his money.  It was a real miracle.  I am also missing a picture of a truck that he named big sexy (I'm still not sure if that was what he named the truck or himself). 

Rocky also had an amazing car that had no heat so he provided warm sleeping bags for every rider to wrap up in.  It was all part of the riding experience.

Jensine's new car that could possibly be the same car as the one above that Maggey bought 6 years later.  We are not sure.  This one had to be jumped each time it was turned off so she would carry around some special battery powered jumper cables so she could start her car without assistance from anyone else.  If it killed at a light it was a bit of a problem.
  

Madisyn's new wheels.  Purchase price of $750

Madisyn's car towed 3 months later for $150. It ran from April to July?

Sid's first car that looked real nice parked in the driveway

One of several cars that Ty purchased from neighbors.
Also one of several cars Ty wrecked

Mickey and I at a state auction trying out driver's ed cars.
Are those bullet holes on the dash?

At the state auction trying to find "one owner cars"
for our kids to buy and crash.
PS These cars have an extra brake on the passenger side.
That is a real selling feature.

These guys are leaning on a car Mickey and I have our eyeballs on!
I wish they would move so I can start er up.

Maybe our kids should invest in a bus pass?