Island Cars

Living on Martha's Vineyard, there are certain things that inevitably bear the prefix or label "Island."

There is "Island Time," an abstract concept akin somewhat to a New York Minute, except on the opposite end of the spectrum.

There are "Island Kids," which may sound self-explanatory, but is often more than just any kid growing up here. An Island Kid somehow personifies this place, with it's particular combination of unique, laid back ambition and off-beat talent.

Then there are "Island Cars." It's not actually a derogatory term but it's no huge compliment either. You have your Island Cars that never leave the Vineyard; they're too old or unreliable to chance driving out in the real world.

Then you have your cars that, regardless of age or model, are just, well, "Island Cars." You wouldn't mistake them for anything else.

They're crusted with a muddy film in the winter and dust in the summer. The interior is home to a requisite amount of fine Vineyard sand, and the tires are obviously no stranger to off-roading.

Tiny scratches adorn both sides from maneuvering down narrow dirt back roads bordered by scrubby overgrowth. You might rub them off with a little effort, but why bother when you'll just be trekking down those same roads again tomorrow or next week?

As surely as we mark the Vineyard seasons by the number of tourists or hours of beach time, so too might we mark them by the cars on our roads. Some time in May, there is an influx of clean, shiny vehicles rolling off the boat, boasting sparkling hubcaps and streak-free windshields.

"They're back," we chant to one another, noting the vast colorful array of out-of-state plates. New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, places where an occasional car wash and regular waxing aren't commonly viewed as a waste of time and money.

Then, just when we've grown used to the annual summer road-bling, autumn arrives. The meticulously detailed cars head for cleaner and less abusive well-paved roads, and the proportion of Island Cars jumps once more.

A sure sign to year-rounders that it's time to kick back and settle in for winter. Long, gray Island Days.

On Island Time.

Is there anything particularly characteristic about the cars in your neck of the woods?

 

 

Comments

[SuziCate]

Love this post...always love your island stories. The pic reminds me of what you see out in the country where my folks live. Most people have large properties and some (like my dad) have their own private (out of view) auto cemetaries..aka-junk yard!

[Bert]

You can tell when it's been a good scallop season in Gay Head when you see upgraded cars, especially BMW'S being driven by my neighbors. This year I haven't seen any upgraded cars.

[Jan]

I found it odd when I moved to Ohio and discovered there were no emissions or inspection laws for vehicles. Because of this, and the salt on the roads during winter, there are a great many rusty cars out and about - a few that make you wonder where all the spit and baling wire is.

[TheKitchenWitch]

I love that truck! We are in SUV Land here--everyone drives one!

[PLRH]

We have every car here! Porsche, Lamborghini, Maserati, Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, Prius, POS college student cars, Hummers, pick-ups pulling boats, pick-ups with gun racks, rental cars, cars from alomost every US state and Canada. Just like the Island it's easy to separate the locals from the visitors.

[Lora]

growing up in the snowbelt, the salt would rust holes in the sides and bottoms (yes, bottoms! we would smuggle sticks along for the ride and poke them through to wear them down to nothing just for funsies)

here in the Land of Parallel Parking, our bumpers are dented and scratched, and most cars have at least a tiny scratch if not an all out gouge straight down the side from an ill-fated pull-out job

[BigLittleWolf]

Love this post. I was on your lovely island long, long ago, but without vehicle. Foot and bicycle. The right way to enjoy it, I think.

As for my particular neck of the woods - bling is the thing. Whether people can afford it or not. My slightly beat of Mazda doesn't qualify, but it gets me from Point A to Point B, hauls lots of kid junk, and that does it for me!

[Mama Badger]

I'm with Jan, I was surprised about the lax laws, too (we do have an emission check in our county, though).

In my home town you could always tell what "season" it was based on what hung in the back window of the pick up trucks. Guns during hunting season, fishing rods during fishing season, towels during the summer (hung off the gun rack, of course).

In Ohio, we don't wash the cars either. I think the feeling is, Why Bother, it's going to snow tomorrow anyhow.

I want to live on Island Time.

[LPC]

In our town cars are always too expensive and and always going way too fast. It ain't the seasons it's the availability of venture capital that makes the difference.

[dreamfarmgirl]

I like this slice of the island's characteristics -- its vehicles say much about the residents and visitors.

In Texas, it's all about trucks. When my daughter was maybe 13 and making new friends at a summer camp in North Carolina, she automatically defended her Texas home when asked if everyone drove trucks. But as soon as "of course not!" left her lips, she said she thought about it, and sure enough, every family she knew actually did own a truck. We just also have cars, too.
By the way, I have a truck in my driveway not too far different from the one in the photo.

[Terry]

Here in Northern California we see lots of hybrids! But since it is also yuppie haven, we see lots of SUVs, Minivans, and the occasional Ferrari.

I love the island cars. They speak to me.

[Vincent]

It is amazing that those younger than 20 have no notion of a Monday Car. That product of western car companies that frightened the living beja**** out of the average car buyer.
Nowadays, you can see the cops out after a crash with satellite positioning systems, measuring tapes and every other concealable scientific measuring devise known to man to measure the ROAD.
No one these days knows what a ball-joint is, back then it was one bit of knowledge that could keep you alive, for they had a bad habit of dropping out at the most inconvenient of moments normally at 60mph. How many these days drive with play in the steering.

[Krista]

Ahh... what a great post. I always feel like I'm on the Island when I'm reading your blog!

Yukon cars... hmmm OH! I know! We all have multiple cracks and chips in our windshields from driving on gravel roads. You can't even buy glass insurance here because it's more expensive to pay the deductible than it is to replace your windshield outright.

My windshield has tuck tape (the red stuff) holding together a spot in the lower driver side corner where there is a hole right through. The hole is big enough for me to stick my thumb through... if it didn't have tape on it... It even passed the insurance safety inspection that way. hehe!

[Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings]

That truck you have pictured looks like it could be a truck around here. That's our area. We have a lot of old cars. In the winter they are gray from the salt kicking up off the road, in the summer they are covered in dust or mud from "off roading." we have a lot, and I mean a lot, of pick-up drivin' fools around this area. In the town I live in there are some fancy little cars because I live where the main hospital is for about 100 miles around. Those fancy cars are, of course, driven by doctors (maybe a few lawyers), but otherwise..pick-ups.

[Lori Anderson]

"Road Bling". I totally love that term.

[Gretchen]

These Island Cars remind me of "Ranch Trucks" back in Texas. Trucks that people keep and use to drive around their ranches, but never take out on a real road. They're usually old, rusty, dented, but much loved. Most people don't even bother to keep the inspection up to date, because they're never off private property. I'll never forget the first time I took my city boy husband in a truck at my best friend's ranch. No seat belts. The shocks were totally shot. Springs sticking out of the seats. Every bump we went over, we bounced all over the cab. Fun!

[Erin]

It's sort of Subaru land here. Four wheel drive land, but not huge gas guzzling things...

Great post, Maureen.

[kathryn]

Well, here in upstate New York, the pickup and SUV rule...much to my chagrin. A little too rustic for my urban taste.

These days, you can't see the colors of people's vehicles...too much salt on 'em. We can't be bothered wasting green on a wash, since it snows every. other. day.

[Gropius]

Oh of course! The cars in my neck of the woods here in SW Florida are cadillacs with Michigan and Ontario plates! Of course we have to love them...they bring the tourism dollars into the community. But they should learn how to drive. Even driving themselves would be better than the human operators that lead them for miles with a left turn signal on in the right lane.

[Constructive Attitude]

Cars over here vary from being really nice and blingy to really weird and blingy to not blingy at all. lol

[Soundbounder]

For as long as I can remember, it was common for many families in Westchester and Fairfield County to have a station car (Train station). It was often a beat up old Datsun, Volvo, or station wagon and it's only purpose was to get to and from the train station for the daily commute. No sense spending a lot of money on a second car that was only used 15 minutes a day.
Sometime in the '90's they disappeared. Now the train station lots are loaded with SUVs, new Acuras etc.

[Kimberly]

I love hearing about things on your island.

[mrsblogalot]

Mostly trucks here...with plows. I will be very happy to see those trucks go away!! (-:

[San Diego Momma]

I'm with everyone else...I love these Island stories. I'm sensing a book of short stories. Or a radio show. I'd listen!

As a San Diegan, I see the inordinate amount of upscale "SoCal" cars pepper the highways. You got your BMWs, Lexuses, Acuras, etc.

Being that I am now also a suburbanite, I could stand to NEVER see another Honda minivan again.

[Bumby Scott]

Thank you for the post.Our "Isle Car" is a 1957 Ford pick up.....Heh.. what's my truck doing on your Island

Always Bumby

[Ocean Girl]

Your Island Stories make me dream of Island Dreams.

[lisleman]

"anything particularly characteristic about the cars in your neck of the woods?"
yeah TOO MANY - Chicago traffic sucks

I imagine you have problems with the salty sea breeze.

[Peggy]

I think I'm with most of your other readers. I love your Island stories. Makes me daydream about someday visiting there. It seems so laid back. I think that's why I like Savannah so much. It's like it's in it's own little time zone! You have Island time and they have Savannah time! :-)

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

I'm old, 63 and I grew up on the farms with field cars, we'd run about with in our fields it was great....this was nostalgia

Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com

[Wendi]

Here in Austin we have a bit of everything, but almost every vehicle has a political bumper sticker of some kind.

[jessica]

yes, they are expensive and it seems only assholes can afford them

[Heather]

It felt like you were descibing our trucks. In the place we lived before the road/driveway was only big enough for one car/truck and the brush was overgrown. Scratches down the sides were very common and useless to worry about. The dirt was sand and the floorboards were covered in it all the time. Two years later and I still haven't got five years of sand out of the carpets in my truck.

Loved this post!

[~The South Dakota Cowgirl~]

Where we live, out off of a gravel road, people either trade their cars in frequently, or have chewed up back bumpers, because the gravel is hard on a bumper! And no household on a ranch is complete without several 4x4 vehicles. I think on our ranch we have no less than 5. Four of them are 4wd pickups. And the old ford in the hayfield may very well 4wd too- I don't know. It hasn't moved from that spot for several years and I've never even been close enough to notice.

And let's not forget Big Green. It's 4wd too!

[Casey]

Island cars sound exciting. Dumpy and carefree, I like it!

Nothing unusual about the cars here except that they're everywhere. Traffic is horrible.

[submom]

This reminds me: we go to OBX every year and stay in the same rented beach house. Every summer, there is this police car parked outside of the community and we were told that it's there to "deter" speeding. One year, the car was egged, even before we showed up for the week. It was still not washed when we left. Not sure how convincing a police car is when it has eggs on it?

[Nina]

Love this one. I always hated being up in the Berkshires with my NY State license plate, though as the years went by, friends said, your car looks like a "Townie Car," and that helped a little.