I say diversionary, because I’m supposed to be out in the garden digging up violets in my newest plot. Almost finished with digging and planting. No back strain, thanks to yoga and lap swimming.
So back to cars. I’m on this tangent after reading that Donald Hall received an English Morris Minor as a wedding present  while he was at Oxford. (poet – ‘Unpacking the Boxes’) That took me back to my first driving lesson, behind the wheel of a child carseat in the early 50’s. Convinced that I was in control of the family’s Naples yellow Morris Minor , I’d sit happily in the back while my mom drove us around Princeton, doing her shopping errands. It must have something to do with why to this day, I love to drive long distances.
No glaring technicolor palette, these cars had subtle hues and were the precursors of the PTCruiser.  I realize now my dad’s hip quotient. His own preference ran to convertibles; he had an MG that he and my mom drove across the country to visit his relatives in (old) Hollywood with me as a toddler in the back. There are old photos of us stopping for brownie breaks in the desert – we all look like gypsies.
I don’t remember the Morris model we had, but it looked much like this.
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…more inspiring perhaps, are my new garden plots and the great piece about regional and local agriculture in this Sunday’s NYTimes.
