Reading and Riding

This week the question is: What do you keep in your car?

I suggested this topic before my recent accident and found that I carried more than I ever imagined, which I learned  as we had to quickly remove all our personal belongings.

That car had belonged to #2 Son, and I also found many things that he had left deep in the glove compartment, console and trunk…but I won’t list those, since they were unintentional ‘passengers’.
(Let me add that he is obviously a bigger pack-rat when it comes to his car than his parents.)

What I INTENTIONALLY carry with me are many things that I have kept in my vehicles since, well, forever.

Purely standard safety equipment includes: Ice scraper, spare, jack, jumper cables, in every trunk and a flashlight, small first-aid kit and antiseptic hand wipes in every car.

We keep a rosary in each car.

My personal must-haves include tissues, plastic trash bags in the cars, plus a zippered bag with a blanket in every trunk. These can be used in case of an emergency, but are there mostly because we used to do a lot of outings and had no place to sit. They now come in handy for soccer games/practice, as do the umbrellas I have in the cars, too, (more for sun than for rain). Despite the trash bags, there are always gum wrappers around my car. I combat dry mouth by chewing gum. My mother insisted that one simply does not walk around chewing gum, so I do my mouth freshening in the car.

I used to keep extra clothing for kids in the cars. In Colorado, the temps easily dip 40F on any given day and can dip more, especially if you are climbing in elevation. Then I just got in the habit and kept some for the grandkids, even though Kentucky temperatures vary less dramatically within the hours of one day. (But within a day or so, it can be a real roller coaster ride up and down the thermometer.)

I still keep a jacket in each car; my husband does also.

Like Joselyn, I am sensitive to sunlight and so along with a pair of sunglasses in my purse, there are spares in each glove compartment. I also keep a pair of reader-cheaters in each car, in case I misplace the glasses in my purse, which happens all too often.

In the glove compartment are maps, (yes, real maps), and napkin, and perhaps straws for the kids. Usually a pair of pliers and/or a screwdriver and scissors. (Small wonder it took me forever to find my proof of insurance and registration for the officer who arrived at the accident scene.)

For the granddaughters, there is a hairbrush. My grandson put a comb and a clothes-roller in my car, which his cousins now use, (they are all vain).

Since I became a diabetic, I keep a zippered pouch of low-carb bars, stevia and stevia-based water flavoring mixes in the cars, which have come in very handy when I have been out longer than I expected, or when I shop out of town.

And if I am going out of town for the day, I make sure I have an extra pair of shoes,(which I often leave in the car).

The car that was just rear-ended to auto-heaven had a horn that never worked, no matter what anyone tried. I kept an air-horn in that car. (People never paid it any attention, but it made a few animals get out of the road.)

I have a large, zippered pouch with some colored pencils, doodle pads, game pads and books for the kids; it used to include coloring books, but the kids are older now. I keep a notebook and pens, in case an inspiration hits me. The kids often have books of their own that they leave in my back seat. All of them have always read in cars.

My husband carries a book with him everywhere, sometimes more. And sometimes they also stay in the car.

I leave several books in the car that I have started reading, which are my ‘while waiting’ books.

A famous author with whom I have become quite friendly told me that she quoted me to a clerk at a store who recognized her and asked her how many books she was carrying in her over-sized purse. The clerk voiced her disappointment that the author had “only two”, (which is two more than most people carry). She told the clerk what a fan [I] had told her:

I have more books in my car than many people have in their homes.

How about you?