Subaru Forester

Today we sold our Subaru Forester. We bought this car new five years ago, actually it replaced the previous Subaru (itself only a few months old), which was totalled in an accident. We bought it scant days after learning Jenny was pregnant with Orion.

This Subaru, like our old house, is wrapped up in our pre-kid notions of Life With Kids. I remember grousing that we had to buy a big-ol’ Forester (not a smaller, zippier Impreza) — such a Mom car, right?

Even before Ada we knew we’d be “upgrading” to a minivan. Two kids in car seats can barely fit in any car smaller than an SUV, and if they do there’s only room for two adults. Just like the old house: it seemed cavernous when it only held two grownup people, or two grownups and one toddler.

Life fills up fast.

And we’ve always been a one-car family. (I don’t know how most middle-class families can afford two cars, to be honest.) Two cars were never in the long-term plan. That Subaru just sat around in the driveway, slowly growing mossy, like a $10,000 rock with strong sentimental value.

Still, even after we bought the minivan it was kind of comforting to have that Subaru around. We always had a Subaru. One of the first things Jenny and I bought together was a Subaru. It was fun to drive, and a reminder of a simpler, slightly more adventurous life with fewer kids.

More weirdness: I will probably never again drive a manual transmission.