Today, my mother and I said goodbye to our 1998 Honda Civic. My dad bought it new; when he died in 2003, I kinda inherited it, paid my mom down the balance, 73,000 miles in.
Miracle drove it to do some Warped Tour shows in 2001, slept in it at Suffolk Downs in Boston; McAllen kept setting off the alarm, hitting the steering wheel with his knee, waking us all up.
@midevenings_jaymiller & I drove it on my first tour with @brandnewrock in ‘04; in fact, any solo (or even early GDB) show in and around the northeast, '03-'14, you likely saw it parked out front or behind the venue.
Every record is connected here - drove it recording and/or demoing Clocks, Split, Ghost, Blood, Concrete … Literally wrote “No Time Flat” in it driving home from @yourmandevine’s college graduation, drove it on the first @badbooksmusic tour, it’s in the music videos for “Brooklyn Boy”, “Bubblegum”, “She Can See Me”.
Every close friend, relationship, love, from 1998-2016; many drives, many conversations with my father, my mother, my brothers, my family. I drove my daughter home from the hospital in it.
She’s kinda named after him; today also would have been his 81st birthday. I’m tired, but there’s poetry in that, balance.
165,425 miles, bits & pieces falling apart, $100 trade-in. I patted the dash four times, said “thank you,” said “bye.”