The Return of the One-Car Family
09/01/2005 00:00 Filed in: Culture Watch
As I watch the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I feel very fortunate for the basic things of life--a home, family, work--the things we usually take for granted. I can't imagine losing one of those things, let alone all of them at the same time as has happened to some.
Even with so many affected and displaced, the majority of the country is not so directly affected, but we will all be affected indirectly. This is not a good time to be building or remodeling a house. All resources are about to head south as New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulf Port and surrounding areas go through the process of rebuilding what was lost. The price of wood and steel is about to get much higher, especially for those who don't have the immediate need that the Gulf cities do. I heard from a friend today that even the price of coffee will go up since 20% of the nation's coffee supply is warehoused in New Orleans. But the biggest thing to affect the rest of us immediately is the price of fuel for our cars.
Locally, the price of gas jumped 65¢ in the last 24 hours. Now it's officially well over $3--the highest any of us have ever seen. I don't know about you, but Kathy and I now think before we even make unnecessary short trips. And it's been this way for the last few weeks as gas prices continued to rise. And for us that even means driving from Simpsonville to Louisville. Two weeks ago, we figured that it it cost us $6 just to drive into Louisville and back. As of tonight, it now costs even more than that. Therefore, we stay home a lot more.
But at the beginning of the week we also began doing something new--we began using one car. Kathy's PT Cruiser gets much better gas mileage than my Ford F150. So rather than each of us going our separate ways in the morning, we have been leaving together, and then coming home together. And you know what? It's kind of nice. We have to compromise. Kathy has to get up a little earlier than usual and I leave probably slightly later than I normally would. We walk out the door together around 7 AM, and I drive her to Simpsonville Elementary School where I drop her off. Then I make the drive into Louisville (although I studied from home on Monday to save gas). At some point in the day, I email Kathy and ask her what time I should pick her up, and that has varied so far between 5:30 and 6:00 PM.
Kathy says she loves the extra time we spend together, and I agree. When she sees me drive up to get her in the evenings, she says it makes her feel special to be picked up--like a child who's been at daycare all day and sees her family coming to get her. Now we begin to describe our individual days to each other before we get home instead of afterwards. We walk into our house talking to each other and continue to do so as we go about tending to Bessie Mae and getting our dinner ready. It's hard to imagine that a simple process like using one car to go to work would draw us even closer, but it has.
And we're not the only ones doing it. A friend of mine told me he and his wife are doing the same thing--at least a few days of the week--and Kathy tells me that the secretary at her school has started sharing a ride with her husband as well. Have you tried this? What are your thoughts? Hit the comment link below and let us know. Maybe it's a trend. Give it a try. Sure you will have to think about your schedules and make a few compromises, but the benefits may be even greater than just monetary. Plus, we may all look up and discover that we don't need two cars after all...