Sundays with Morrie

     For those of you who were forced to have the book, "Tuesdays with Morrie"  for required reading in college...this isn't the blog for you. This little story isn't even close! It's about one of my passions...classic British cars!
     Morrie is my latest classic vehicle that I've bought. He's a 1961 Morris Minor 1000 and  for a 50 year old car, he can sure motor along the pavement at the tremendous hair-raising speed of 45 to 50 mph!!!  Hair-Raising that is, because all the windows are open due to Morrie not having AC.
     Come on....He's 50 years old this year and has a 4 stroke engine...what did you expect from a British transplant who's trunk is called the boot, while the hood is known to anyone from England, as the bonnet! I don't have to make this stuff up folks...GOOGLE IT!   I love his simple interior turn signal that when I'm driving at night or dusk, the end of which, blinks a soft intermitting green alien glow.  Just another cool english quirky touch to a wonderful car! 
     A few weeks back,  I had just parked Morrie at a friend's antique mall just off  I-44  here in Missouri  and hadn't even made it to the front door when my hubby nudged me and whispered..."Morrie's made another conquest."  I turned to see a young woman in her 30's out of her car and hunched over, peering into Morrie's interior...openly lusting after my little car!  A smile crept over my face as I opened the door to the shop to my friends' comments from behind the counter..."Is that Morrie?  Is that your new car that we've seen pictured on your FB page Dix?"  Well now, that put me in a rather good mood for the rest of that day!
     In total orginial condition...white leather seats and baby blue exterior paint job...he's quite the looker while tooling around town. Yesterday, I had just left our small town on our newly finished 4 lane highway, when I noticed a red car that had pulled out to pass...wasn't doing so. Instead, it was staying even with Morrie. Gulp! I finally got up enough nerve to sneak a peek at my speeding shadow...only to see every single one of other car's windows filled with the smiling faces of young teens who had their phones out and were photographing and video-taping Morrie and me as we scurried down the highway...(Darn it! I knew I should have done something with my hair that day!)
     I smiled with relief and gave them the peace sign which they smiling returned, as they gleefully passed me while still taping Morrie from the back seat window...slowly putting distance between us in their younger car...
     It's moments like that, that I LOVE my classic cars! To see the appreciative smiles of a younger generation who have never had to use a hand-crank to start their car, push in a choke, polish points, shift with an antiquated gear linkage system that's prone to grinding metal and have never had to learn to park it on a slight hill (just in cause) you might have to roll start your cantankerous car....is fulfilling to me. Because they're drawn to the beautifully contoured lines of a car that had...and still has...STYLE!  It might not start on demand....but by Gosh, it has style!!

     I've been approached at gas stations by strangers who normally wouldn't make the effort to know me...all because of Morrie. They think at first he's a vintage VW Bug...but then I explain that he's a Morris. The little car that was the first effort of the designer who went on to design the Mini Cooper. Men who normally wouldn't care for a baby blue car are drawn to Morrie like a helpless bug to a little shining light! I've let young children sit behind the wheel and show them the rather complicated way of starting Morrie...most giggle...but I do believe that at least one of these youngesters will one day...try to hunt down a Morris Minor...all because of the eccentric old lady who let them sit behind her pride and joy!