My car is developing an auto-inferiority complex from being constantly
squeezed between hulking behemoths in the parking lots of our little
corner of suburbia. Which leads me to ask: am I the only one still
driving a regular-sized (e.g. not a SUV, mini-van, or maxi-sized four-wheel-drive) vehicle these days?
Okay.
You have three or more kids, and each of those kids has friends and
sporting equipment and band instruments. I get that, especially in the
carpool-intense younger years. Or you live in a snowy region with lots
of hills. But what's with all the rest of the drivers out here in
picket fence-land? Do they really need to drive that humongous Hummer
to pick up a measly old carton of milk from the supermarket? And just
how much off-roading does one do on the way to the mall, anyway?
While
it's true that my regular-sized vehicle may be overshadowed on the
roads and in the parking lots, there is one place it does stand
head-and-shoulders above the transportation-on-steroids crowd. And that
would be? The gas pump.
by Laurie Yarnell
Laurie Yarnell does not now -- nor
has she ever -- owned a mini-van. Her kids played soccer for about a
minute-and-a-half. But her "Embedded in the 'Burbs" blog at ivillage.com is funny, interesting, engaging, thought-provoking, and above all, charmingly modest.