Cindy La Ferle’s Home Officea window on the writing life

Dreaming in Detroit

Cindy on January 18th, 2009

“Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” — E.B. White

Mothers and sons are as different as mineral water and motor oil, and there are times when the distance between us seems impossible to navigate. The road to a smooth relationship often depends on the vehicle.

Just as the automobile is crucial to Detroit’s economy, cars have always been a key part of our household, not to mention our family mythology.

Before he learned to talk, my son Nate was drawn to anything with wheels – garbage trucks, trains and, especially, sports cars. And during the early years of his adolescence, the sanctity of the sports car was often the only non-combustible topic the two of us could discuss and agree upon.  Whether we were driving in my SUV or his dad’s business sedan, a cool sports car never failed to turn our heads and inspire us to dream aloud.

These memories came tumbling back because the 2009 Detroit Auto Show (known officially as the North American International Auto Show) opens this week. It’s the first year I won’t be attending it with Nate, who graduated college last year and moved to Chicago. As I type this, he’s flying around the country on assignment. Since he lives in the city, Nate doesn’t even own (or need) a car now.

Flipping through the Detroit Free Press this morning, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for years past, when touring the auto show was the highlight of our snowy Michigan winters. Our whole family enjoyed every chrome-flashing highlight of each year’s awesome displays, from edgy concept cars to sexy luxury sedans.

In 2007, when I covered the show for our local daily newspaper, for instance, my husband and I drooled over the elegant Lamborghini display while Nate coveted the handcrafted Aston Martin V8 Vantage, which would have earned a thumbs-up from James Bond himself. And we were especially impressed the futuristic concept models, one of which actually promised a gas-free daily commute for Americans whose drive to work is 20 miles or less. (Remembering my dad’s gas-guzzling ‘60s Chevy Impala, I gave GM an enthusiastic thumbs-up for eco-friendly progress.)

As a mom, I’m forever indebted to my automobiles for safely transporting my son back and forth to school, music lessons, field trips, and family vacations.

But like everyone else who sustains a longtime romance with cars, I also like to think of them as vessels of good memories.The mere flash of a chartreuse Camaro, for example, is enough to conjure a few reveries of my own carefree college days. And every time I spot a Jeep Cherokee on the road or at a car show, I recall the times I traversed the suburbs with a cargo of neighborhood kids and their backpacks. Likewise, my son still waxes nostalgic about the old Honda Prelude — our first family sports car — that was sold to another driver several years ago.

I’m tempted to revisit the Detroit Auto Show with my husband this year. If only for a few hours, maybe the two of us can forget winter’s chill and Michigan’s droopy economy. We could inhale the heady scent of new leather interiors and recharge some old memories. Or we could picture ourselves driving off into the sunset — at 100 miles an hour — in a brand-new, bubble-gum yellow Dodge Circuit EV concept. Oh yes, we can dream.

Tags: 2009 North American International Auto Show, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, automobiles, cars, Chevrolet Impala, culture, Detroit, Detroit Auto Show, Dodge Circuit EV, family, family entertainment, Lamborghini, mothers and sons, nostalgia, parenting
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