Lemons to Luxury

I've had my share of lemons, and I don't mean the fruit--I mean cars. My dad, a frugal man, a trait I didn't appreciate growing up, never allowed me, nor any of my other siblings, to buy new cars. If you did, it was at the risk of being disowned. No, I am kidding, it wasn't that bad, but cars were never something in which my dad indulged. Often times I wanted to just give in and buy a nice car, yet I always respected my father and didn't. So I ALWAYS feared overheating car, which was a usual occurrence, and turning on the air-conditioning consisted of rolling down the windows, something that wasn't too effective during Southern California's summers. My first car was a white 1990 Toyota Corolla that I bought for $1,000 and drove until I was 24. That car was good for a while, but weird things started happening. The Corolla finally failed after a series of unfortunate events starting with my sister Summer hitting another car while driving down the street, and then I rear-ended someone destroying the radiator. It didn't start again after that. At that time, I didn't buy a new car even though I really wanted to. Instead, I started driving Nathan's inherited 1995 Oldsmobile. He inherited the car from his great grandpa, and it look just like that too--a car a grandpa would drive. I also started driving Nathan's Toyota Echo once in a while which was nice, yet none of these cars were really mine. Eventually, the Oldsmobile died due to a blown head gasket. Now, the frugal trait my father possesses lies in Nathan as well. So instead of buying a car at this time, Nathan opted to ride his bike and take the bus to work. He would continue to do this if the county was not shutting down his bus route. This pushed us to finally buy a new car. So after 26 years, I finally have my own new car. We bought a Honda Civic EX. I think I deserve it. I have worked hard for it.