Saturday, November 10, 2007

How I named my car (pictures forthcoming I promise)

A. "the germ of an idea"
Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of my favorite singer/songwriters.

B. "how we got there, part I"
My new car has a cassette not CD player. (I only just got a CD player in my car last year for Christmas, and it increased the value of the car when I got the insurance settlement...)

C. "how we got there, part II"
So this morning on the way out the door, I fortuitously grabbed one of my favorite tapes, MCC's album, "Come on, come on." The first song is "The Hard Way" which summarizes my life, getting my Master's degree in Hard Knocks.

The last stanza goes like this:

Caught up in our little lives, there's not a lot left over
I see what's missing in your eyes; you're searching for that field of clover
So show a little inspiration, show a little spark
Show the world a little light when you show it your heart
We've got two lives, one we're given and the other one we make
And the world won't stop, and actions speak louder
Listen to your heart, and your heart might say
Everything we got, we got the hard (everything we got, we got the hard way)
Everything we got, we got the hard way
(Because the world won't stop) hang on, baby...

Complete lyrics here, at cowboylyrics.com.

Well, I thought, this album is what this journey to this car has been. (Another song on the album is "The Bug:"

Because sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug
Sometimes it all falls together baby, sometimes you're a fool in love
Sometimes you're the Louisville Slugger baby, sometimes you're the ball
Sometimes it all comes together baby, sometimes you're gonna lose it all

D. "The name."
And on the flip side, the first track is "Passionate Kisses," which I first heard sung by (also the writer of said song) Lucinda Williams back in 1989. Which is also around the time this car was being put together. "Passionate Kisses" also sums up my current journey:

Is it too much to ask?
I want a comfortable bed that won't hurt my back
Food to fill me up
And warm clothes and all that stuff

Shouldn't I have this,
Shouldn't I have this?
Shouldn't I have all of this, and

Passionate kisses
Passionate kisses, whoa oh oh
Passionate kisses from you

Is it too much to demand...
Pens that won't run out of ink
And cool quiet and time to think

So as I meandered down Rte. 8, listening to MCC, and thinking I didn't want to name my car Mary, I thought, Lucinda is a nice name, and Lucy is a good nickname. Plus, Lucy is a name full of connotations, including the Charles Schultz Peanuts character. And a dear friend from when I worked at Fox Books has a daughter named Lucy.

E. "Google confirmation."
And having chosen the name, I had to Google its meaning. Lucy means light, so that's a good name. Lucinda has something to do with the Roman goddess that brings light to newborns, I'm not touching THAT with a ten foot pole.

Happy Arriving Day, Lucinda dear!

4 comments:

Amy A. said...

A perfect name. Love it.

KitchenKiki said...

I like Lucy.

I haven't named my car. Nothing called out to me.
My last car was my mom's (the Mazda), so it was just mom's car. The car previous to that was a little red mazda, that I called red. Unoriginal but it worked. Before that was another of my Mom's hand-me-downs and that was Mathilda at one point & Betty at another.
Before that was the '72 Baby-poop brown Chevy Chevelle Malibu called Elwood. That name totally fit that car!

Sarah Louise said...

I miss Elwood. I am such a sappy sentimentalist, but I loved that car. Just thinking about it puts me right back on Prospect in Hackensack, driving around with Granny on hot hot summer days. We went to some movie with Gary Coleman at the mall with Sterns and the electricity went out half way through the film. I can't remember if we stayed, if the electricity came back on. Hmm. All that from the words Chevy Chevelle.

KitchenKiki said...

I don't have very many memories of Granny driving that car anywhere. I think when we visited my dad usually drove. Most of my images are of the apartment. And the stinky smell of sending things down the chute to the incinerator (which was always fun)