It's More Of An Eggplant Really

When I was a newlywed, with a newly increased income, the future ex-wife and I decided to go out and buy a car. We had no idea what we were doing. After going from lot to lot to lot, we stumbled into Auffenburg Chevrolet in Kirkwood. By this time we had seen probably 10-20 cars that we had liked and were in our price range. I was partial to a Jeep Wrangler we had seen early on. However, I had always wanted a Jeep Wrangler for as long as I can remember, so I pretty much shut out the rest of the cars.

Then, Jennifer jumped out of the old '89 Cavalier and into our destiny. "That's our car! It's PURPLE!" she exclaimed loudly, right in front of the salesman that would eventually "talk us into" buying the damn thing. Biggest mistake you can make when buying a car? Anyone? Yep, tell the salesman that the pretty little thing that he has in his possession is something that you just have to have in yours.


From the get go, Jennifer wanted a sports car. And, her favorite color was, and probably still is purple. So, when she saw that 1996 Deep Violet Metallic Ford Mustang, knowing that Mustangs are one of my favorite cars ever, she knew it was going to be ours. Right after she knew, the salesman did too. No sooner had I opened my door and stepped out, we were on a test drive up Lindbergh to 40 to 270 to Manchester to Lindbergh to the salesman's desk to the contract to our parking lot in the French Quarter Apartments. What do you know, the woman was right. It was our car.

And, it was purple. Color code JU, of which only 4,769 were produced in 1996.


That car was with me from September of 1998 until last August, when I finally had to sell it for college money. It had been in 3 accidents(none of which I was in the car for), a move halfway across the country and back, and a divorce. When we did split up I took the car. It was the only thing I put up a fight for when we were seperating the "marital assets". Unless you count the dishes(and more dishes), but, really, that was something I fought for later.

Someday soon, I hope to own another Mustang. It will not be purple.