Monday, October 11, 2010

Name that vehicle

Growing up we had a tradition of naming our family vehicles. One objective of this blog is to find out if that was normal. Did anyone else have a car that they named?

As I look back on our various cars and their names there seems to have been a decline in the creativity as time went on. This trend continues today. For example, Libby drives a red highlander and we refer to it as…drum roll…the red car. Before discussing our current cars further I want to take a moment to recognize the vehicles of my youth that we named with affection.

First, and the most creative of the names, was Babe the baby blue Ford Aerostar. The name came from Paul Bunyan’s ox, Babe, who was the same color as our first mini-van. I would estimate we rocked this thing throughout the Midwest during the early 90’s. This was back when vans only had a sliding door in one side.


My older sister cruised to and from school in Bonnie the Bonneville starting in 1995ish. Early 1990s model, with a very long front hood.

My first car was Curt the Camry. I estimate it to be a 1990 Toyota Camry.

With Bonnie and Curt, you can see creativity was already on the decline. Better then red car, but no Babe.

All the above pictures were pulled from the Internet, not shots of our actual vehicles. I thought I would mention that, just in case the sunset and barn in the background of the Pontiac Bonneville weren't enough of a give away.

Back to present day other then the red car, we have a van. After leaving my sales job that included a car, we were in need of a vehicle. Lib’s parents were in the market for a new car themselves, so we bought their used van. A lot of people say they could never drive a van, but I love it. Vans are so spacious and ours has really been very convenient for all our summer travels.

The only issue I have with our van is that it is currently nameless. I would love your help, so please submit any suggestions you may have. To get the brainstorming started below I have listed a couple of other famous vans.

Dumb and Dumber is one of my favorite movies of all time. Harry and Lloyd cruised most of the way across the country in their Shaggin’ Wagon. It was traded for a moped after Harry made a wrong turn on their way to Aspen.

I love this YouTube clip about The Sienna “Swagger Wagon”.



Last but not least, a shot of our van. I guess we don't have any real shots of (would be great to have a name here) our van, so I again went to the Internet. Good luck naming this beauty!

6 comments:

  1. I had a areostar- green. It's name was Gumby. Now I have a silver Odesssy-The Verticoli (the name Will Ferrell's character Chazz Michael Michaels' brush in Blades of Glory). Tim had a green grocery getter named The Green Destiny (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). I wish I could help you name your vehicle but I am not that creative. It took a year to name my van. We obviouly use movies to influence our decisions. That is my best advice to you. Good luck an let me know what you've chosen in the end!

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  2. I love this post, Paulie! Mark and I carried on the tradition calling our Oldsmobile Toronado, "Tori" and I now drive "Maxine", my Nissan Maxima :). I was thinking for your new silver cruiser that he/she (have you picked a gender?) could be called "The Silver Fox" after Anderson Cooper...perhaps for short you could go with "Foxy".... :).

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  3. beth - that is hilarious especially because paul likes anderson cooper. i know that when my parents used to drive the van paul called it 'the silver bullet' (which i think is coors slogan or used to be)

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  4. P.S. I just went pack and watched the Swagger Wagon 'vid'...SO great! Loved it.

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  5. Thanks for the ideas everyone. Silver Fox and Silver Bullet are both good suggestions. Abby, amazing creativity with your vehicle names! Glad to hear others name their cars. Off line a neighbor told me growing up his dad had a white car and his mom had a green car. They called the cars tissue and booger!

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