The Saturday Morning Post: Big Red 83

So, how did I end up driving a big red Cadillac? I paid for most of law school with student loans.  For undergrad, I had worked full time, went to school part time and paid as I went.  Law school was different, full time law students are not allowed to work the first year, and discouraged from working for years 2 and 3.  

Six months after I graduated the payments started. The minimum payments were about 1/3 of my take home pay.  Almost as large as the mortgage payments on the house in Kentucky.  I buckled down and paid.  The car I was driving I had bought new a couple of years before I started law school, and paid off when we moved to Kentucky.  It was about 10 years old, had a lot of miles on it, and I got to the point I didn't trust it.  So I bought a compromise used car to drive until the loans were paid off - a basic Saturn.  It was simple, and reliable, but not terribly comfortable.

I did as much moonlighting as I could, I was saving up cash to pay off my student loans.  I had about $10,000 saved up.  

Then the higher education authority sent out a letter about a public interest loan forgiveness program.  I had worked in a non-profit legal aid program since finishing law school.  The paperwork was daunting - but what did I have to lose.  I had been paying on my loans for about 7 years, I still owed about $12,500.  I checked the balance one day and it was $1,400,  $10,000 and year's interest had been taken off my balance.  I sent a check in the next day and paid off the balance. 

And I had the extra cash I had saved up to try to pay off the student loans early.  Smile - it was time for a nicer car.  $10,000 even at that time wouldn't buy a new car, and I really didn't want any debt.  

I decided a nice used car would be perfect. After having driven small and basic for a few years, I decided what I really wanted was a "fat assed middle age man car."  I started looking around town, and I mentioned to friends of mine who did a lot of probate and estate work that the ideal car for me was something a few years old with not very many miles on it.  A car to old for the banks to be interested in financing, that I could easily pay cash for.  A couple of leads trickled in, a Jaguar X type - I drove it - it felt like a four-wheel drive pickup truck.  

Then Robert said, "I have just the thing, a 9 year old Eldorado with 12,000 miles on it, that has spent a lot of time sitting in a garage, for $9,000."  I didn't say I will buy it on the spot, I wanted to see it and drive it first.  A few days later I met him, drove it down the street, said yes, and we were off the clerk's office for the transfer.  It was part of a guardianship estate.  The owner was an older woman who had never worked a day in her life, she had a large inheritance in a trust fund.  She had developed dementia, and was in a care facility (the best around, money was no object.)

It was huge, and comfy.  The first time I drove it, I thought of a line in the movie Titanic, "take her to sea Mr. Murdoch!" That is what it felt like.  I drove it 4 or 5 years.  After I moved to DC, parking became a nightmare.  Half of the parking spaces in this area it was simply to big for.  And a couple of things broke and the local dealer here in DC was expensive with an attitude.  I decide one day, I wanted something nice and much smaller.  I traded it on a sensible 5 door hatchback, with all kinds of bells and whistles.  

I have owned a lot of cars, Big Red was the only one that ever drew a compliment from my father, "a damn fine automobile," high praise from him.