Car Wash

I guess I have lived in NY long enough, that it seems weird to see shiny cars in the middle of winter. No grime, no road salt. Shiny. I had also forgotten about washing the car in the driveway on a sunny weekend. Every weekend here, I see someone in the neighborhood washing their car. This is something I remember doing as a child, and I know the girls helped me do the same when we lived in Tallahassee.

When we moved to NY, our new home was very different than what we had always known. We moved into a house downtown, and though we did have a driveway, it was very short, and to wash the car meant I would be blocking the sidewalk. Also, that wasn't happening in January, no matter how much room I had! Even in the summer, I was more apt to take the minivan (we called her Hannah, the Montana) and run it through a car wash than wash it at home.

It wasn't until we came here, to south Florida, that I even remembered about washing the car in the drive. I remembered when I was young, with all my brothers, spraying the hose in the bucket, getting the sponges all sudsy and spraying down the family van, everyone taking their section and washing it down. We always ended up soaked, and maybe the van got clean. I remembered doing the same thing with my girls. I remember their pudgy little toddler arms and legs in their brightly colored swimsuits- all oranges, yellows, and pinks- running around the bumpers of the minivan, sudsing themselves as much as the van. I remember their screeches and more running, when I sprayed the hose over the top of the van at them.

 

 

 

So I decided, "When in Rome..." I talked Thia into joining me. By now, our car had grown very dusty, and she really did need a bath. However, living very minimalist here, we don't have a hose. So we used a couple of bathroom sized trash cans, one with the suds and rags, another for rinsing. The nearest place to fill was the kitchen sink, so there were dozens of trips to and from the kitchen.

We used the first bucket to rinse the front end of the car, then we started wiping. I had to explain to Thia how to be sure to wipe every spot on a panel, or it will leave marks. Back to fill up the rinse bucket, and rinse off the windshield and hood. It was a bright, sunny day, so the water (and suds, if we weren't careful) were drying quickly. Eventually, we ended up taking turns, one of us would wipe, while the other filled the bucket, because by the time the bucket was full, it was needed to rinse. We definitely got wet.

So that is how we worked our way around the car, from top to bottom. We didn't even bother with the wheels. With all the bucket filling, we tracked a muddy path through the front hall to the kitchen. By the time we were finished, the car was less dirty, but a far cry from the shiny ones we see on the street. I am going to blame that on the lack of a hose, and the fact that I was not going to even consider using Turtle Wax. Also, the fact that someone, somewhere in the neighborhood, was now burning something, so as we were finishing, all of these little pieces of ash kept fluttering down onto the car.

               I think there is a car wash in our future.