Having a "Fit"

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I somehow never  thought I’d see the day when I drove past a gas station, saw that unleaded regular was selling for $3.98 a gallon, and think I was witness to a “bargain.”

Last year, when gas “temporarily” spiked to $3.50 a gallon, I declared myself officially in the market for a new car.  Three months of searching and researching and test driving later, I bought a 2007 Honda Fit.  I drive 30,000 miles a year for work and life, and at that price, I knew my beloved Subaru Forester was going to either bankrupt me or force me to change jobs.  Now, pulling 37 miles a gallon, I congratulate myself on that unexpected foresight every time I pull up to the pump.  And it’s nice to dart around like a minnow in narrow traffic lanes and crowded parking lots.  The last time I drove something anywhere near this petite, I was behind the wheel of a borrowed Fiat and shuddering at the thought of the two semis on either side of me on a three-lane interstate.

But I still look back wistfully on my days in college when gas cost maybe twenty seven cents a gallon, and I could put a gallon or two or three in the tank of my 1964 V-8 Chevy BelAire with pocket change left over from my waitressing job.  Oh, there aren’t many things I miss from the “good old days”…okay, maybe the Good Humor man and his white truck with the jingling bells...but the price of gas is one of them! 

And for the rest of the "downsizing" story, turn to...

Shifting Gears