Rolling backwards, downhill, in a small car, on the side of the street almost exclusively hosting cars traveling in the other direction was the catalyst for brilliance in facial color.
My parents the left the country and left us their car, the plan was that they would have it to come back to; the plan was not for mechanisms to crumble under the hood as soon as they left. The most expensive, and to us the most inconvenient thing, was that the repair cost was more that the car was worth.
We lived in Hermosa Beach California,a very hilly area, most being at least a block long, all being steep. Most everywhere we stopped or parked we were on a side of a hill or at the bottom one, surrounded by four steep roadways going almost straight up. Our car didn’t DO up!
We’d sit outside a friend’s house a long time running the car, trying to heat it up, and trying to determine; how hot the engine was when we’d arrived, how long we’d left the car parked and how cool was it outside. We’d make a guess then after the stop sign, because Hermosa Beach had implanted a sign at the bottom of every hill, we attempted a forward… trip… up.
We’d get almost get to the top, and with the driver’s foot still floored on the gas we’d ROLL BACKWARDS! We’d sit in the middle of the street or intersection, warming the car up, and then try it again, and again. On at least one these attempts we’d have an audience! If they were behind us they’d back up and park at one of the stop signs and watch the show, or worse, some cars would accompany us downhill! We were each on our own side of the street. We were going about the same speed. We were going in the SAME direction. They were going forward we were BACK WARD and paralleled to each other all the way to the bottom where we’d both stopped!
I didn’t have control of the car or my glowing red rosy color but I did have a repertoire of body language to choose from! I, being the passenger was watched by the gawking occupants of the downhill car. Lucky me.
I either stared straight ahead projecting nonchalance, while the passenger or passengers in the other car lost their cool, looking either like puppies at an open window or small kids seeing a dinosaur for the first time! Or, I engaged in an intense conversation with the driver so deep that it was obvious I wasn’t even AWARE I was going backwards. I sometimes turned to the gawkers and pulled a Charlie Brown grimace with my eyes and mouth, but that was a hard face to pull off for all those loong minutes it took to hit bottom. Other times I turned to our audience and smiled and waved, like a movie star, and to fill the downward minutes, I blinked my eyes as if they were made of star dust and opened and closed my fake grin understanding completely their adoration. But no matter what act I put on I was the same color.nancymauerman.com