Pat Bean's blog

Aging My Way

One thing leads to another is the way my brain works, especially as an old-broad, and retired journalist who has time to let her mind wonder.

It started with a mention of the Stutz Bearcat, which I thought was a funny name for a car, and which sent me scrambling to learn more. My search had me acknowledging that information at one’s fingertips is the No 1 redeeming feature of the internet.

What I learned is that the Bearcat was designed and built by a man named Harry Stutz because he wanted to enter the Indianapolis 500-mile race. The year was 1911, and Stutz’ car placed 11th in the race’s inaugural event.

While uncovering these bits of history, my mind wandered back to the car in which I learned to drive back in 1955. It was a maroon, 1949 Studebaker convertible owned by a boyfriend.

Wanting to refresh my memory of that 70-year-old part of my personal history, I once again strolled through the internet until I came across a photo of the exact same model and make of that 1949 car.

Almost needless to say because of the year, the convertible had a manual gear shift. It made learning to drive a bit more difficult than today’s automatic transmissions, which I use as an excuse for my first driving lesson. While attempting to work the clutch and gas pedal at the same time, I and that convertible ending up taking out a hedge growing too close to the driveway.

There have been a lot of cars in my life since then, including a 1976 Ford Mustang, which was the first new car I owned and which cost less than $4,000; a 1990’s Subaru Legacy that wasn’t happy unless it was going at least 80, and which earned me three speeding tickets in one year (my first and still only speeding tickets) but which I still consider the best car I ever owned: and a 21-foot, 2004 Volkswagen/Winnebago RV that took me around the country for nine years after I had retired.

I wonder what it would have been like to have driven that 1911 Stutz Bearcat. But then that is something the internet can’t answer.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining. She also believes one is never too old to chase a dream.