By Bonnie Brown

Columnist

It’s hard to believe but our Honda CRV turned 17 this month!  Her name is Bessie.  She still looks nice, and only a little wear betrays her age.  She’s been a most reliable and dependable vehicle.  We purchased her the same week that our granddaughter Piper was born who is also now 17.  

As I said, Bessie is very dependable.  I recently travelled beyond the Oxford and county limits.  But before I left, my husband Tom asked if I didn’t want to drive our newer Mazda whose name is Scarlett.  I decided that I’d go with Bessie since she is very familiar.  

One other time many years ago, we had a Mercury that was about 14 years old.  My husband proclaimed that I should think about getting a newer vehicle.  Again, I declined his advice and drove on to Memphis in the Mercury.  And yes, as you might imagine, I had car trouble.  The Mercury stalled out and acted up, but I was able to get into a McDonald’s parking lot and out of traffic.  The first call I made was to our roadside assistance provider.  The next call I made was to Bub Brannan to describe the “symptoms” and ask his advice as to what the problem was.  He offered to come to Memphis to pick me up, but I told him I hadn’t called Tom yet but if necessary, Tom would come get me.  My last call was to Tom to tell him about my car troubles.  He wanted to come pick me up immediately, but I told him to wait until the roadside assistance guy came and I would tell him where to pick me up.  

When the roadside assistance guy arrived shortly after, I tried the car, and it cranked right up!  I was surprised and the roadside assistance guy was confused.  Did I need help or not?  He offered to follow me to a nearby service station and after some inspection, declared that the car appeared to be running all right and I set off to home. 

So back to Bessie.  As I said, she’s 17 years old.  But as I was about halfway to my destination, a yellow alert light appeared on the dashboard.  It said TPWS.  What was that?  I pulled off the road to “google” the alert to discover that it was Tire Pressure Warning System.  Well, it was a cold morning, so I felt sure it meant that the tire pressure was low on one or more tires confirming Bessie’s warning light.  

I stopped at a convenience store/gas station and found an air pump.  After figuring out how to pay for the service, I started to put air in each tire, but a young man came out of the store to help.  Hooray!  Chivalry is not dead!  I got back on the road to discover the alert was still on; however, after driving several miles, it went off.  

So, the moral of this story is that I should listen to my sweet husband and heed his advice.  But what I will also take away from this experience are these:  Listen to my spouse; be thankful to Bub Brannan; chivalry is not dead; and hooray for Bessie!  Even at her advanced age, and never having displayed this warning light before, she still came through and acted so responsibly on my behalf.  She is totally awesome—and so is my dear Tom.