My son has always been a little countercultural. When he was in eighth grade, he trade someone gave him a Guitar Hero video game and he traded it in for a real guitar under the moniker, "Dad, real guitar heroes play real guitars. " When we moved here 10 years ago, he kept all of that countercultural aspect and found it in Portland in a way that Miami could not provide.
Well, number one, I will be on my bike, he said, forever, for all time. And he was committed through high school to riding that bike. It was a pain in the ass for me because he would call me at 11:00 at night not wanting to ride his bike home and I would have to go get him.
So, there was a couple of times where I begged him to buy a car and to get his license and he just refused. And then came Zana. Zanna lived in Beaverton.
All good stories start with love. Um, and my son, while I was sitting at the dining room table one day, said to me, "Dad, I think I want a car. " the opportunist that I am.
90 seconds later, I was on Craigslist. Two minutes later, I had found a car. And within three minutes, I was on the phone talking to a guy.
Less than an hour later, I was standing in front of him with my son behind me and $1,000 in my hand, walking around a 1994 Subaru and kicking the tires like I knew what I was doing. I did not. We drove the car around the block.
It was near perfect and I wondered why it was only $1,000. And I asked the guy, I was like, "Hey, not going to haggle you for the price. This is $1,000 car.
It's $250,000 miles, but still, why is it only $1,000? " And he says, "You see, there's this girl. " And my son, say no more.
Totally got what was happening. So, I went to hand him the $1,000. And before I did, I shook my hand out and I said, " $1,000 for the car.
" And he grabbed my hand and he kind of looked me in the eyes and there was a moment there when we were holding hands and he looked me in the eyes and we kind of had an exchange of energy and he said, "Before I saw you the car, there's a couple of rules, two of them to be exact. " And I said, "Okay. " And he wouldn't let go of my hand.
And he said, "Rule number one, my mom was the original owner. She passed it to me. We don't refer to it as the car.
We don't refer to it as the Subaru. We don't call it the Sub. We don't call it his car, your car, anyone's car.
" His name is Buster. Still holding my hands. to which I said, "Offensive pronouns aside, we will call it Buster.
No problem. " And he said, "One more thing, Buster doesn't have a CD player. There's no six CD changer.
The AMFM radio doesn't work very well. Buster only plays one tape. " And I looked at my son, knowing that this could be a deal breakaker for the Guitar Hero.
If you get in the car every time and Cindy Loer comes on, not going to work. And the guy said, I hope you like Led Zeppelin 4. This was a deal.
I handed him $1,000 and we drove away with Buster. And for four years, my son drove from Southeast Portland to Lincoln High School and it served us well. He spent a couple of nights in the back of the car.
I'm going to assume drunk plausible plausable than our ability, you know. Um, it took him to the coast once. It took him to the base of Mount Hood more than once.
It was very reliable and it was kind of a family car for us. We lent it to some friends. We kind of got him attached to Buster.
So, you can see why I was bummed. A couple of weeks ago, when I went to go unlock Buster and he was gone. He wasn't where I left him last.
And my son, who's in New Zealand right now in school, I had to call and tell him that Buster was gone. And it kind of felt like your family pet had run away, like your dog had gone and you couldn't find him and you didn't know where he was. Um, all things kind of happened.
We moved houses and it's been a month. And on Friday, this week, the Portland police called me and said, "We found Buster. I was beyond excited that we had actually found Buster and I called Ransom immediately and I was like, "Yo, Buster is back.
This is so cool. " And uh uh yesterday uh my phone rang three times from a number I didn't recognize. And the guy on the other end of the phone said to me, "You don't know me from anyone.
My name's Bob, but someone sold me your Subaru. the title registration was in the car and I paid $750 for it and he explained to me that he was a veteran on disability and that he worked all summer long so he wouldn't have to walk to work in the winter time. So today at about 6:00 tonight, I met Bob at the station at the tow station and together we paid to get the car out of the lot and he took the car and he's 60some years old and he shook my hand and when he did there was a moment between the two of us and I looked at him and I kind of understood where he was coming from and he looked like he had seen some hard times.
times blue collar like he had seen war. And he looked me in the eyes like men of a certain age would want to do and he said to me, "Thank you. You will not understand how much this car means to me.
" And I didn't let go of his hand. Then I looked him right back in the eyes and I said, "We don't call it the car. His name is Buster.
" Thank you. Holy. Give it up for Scott.
