The Auto Eulogy

Everyone has seen them, those vinyl tributes to a lost loved one on the rear window of an SUV. Maybe it's a 9-11 rememberance or "Gone to Race in a Better Place." Those white vinyl eulogies, posted like a billboard for all to see, are a tiny [or sometimes large] view into the driver's world. In a bumper sticker crazy country, these brave individuals chose to rebuff the bumper and adorn their rear windows instead.

Perhaps they've lost a loved one recently. Sometimes these vinyl "shout-outs" reveal that a loved one was ripped from them too soon. Today I saw one such auto eulogy. A tribute to something near and dear to the driver - something that was ripped from him far too soon.

He was middle-aged, perhaps in his early 60's. The black tint on the rear window of his new red Hummer H3 provided the perfect contrast to the tiny white vinyl euolgy posted just above the spare wheel. It read:

In memory of my savings account

1997-2007

One can only imagine this poor man's pain. Only a handful of months ago he was poised for retirement. He was wrapping up the payments on that beach house at Hilton Head. He was ready to sharpen his golf game and had made a down payment on a red golf cart shaped like a tiny Hummer. No doubt his wife's tan, already a bottled golden hue, was beach ready. She was prepared to start a little candle making business. But then . . . [dum dum dum] in a flash - the ring of a bell - it was all ripped from them. The house, the golf, the tan (well maybe not the tan) all gone with the wind.

The one thing the market couldn't take from him (other than his wife's new orange glow) was his sense of humor and maybe the $11.95 he spent on his auto tribute to an old friend.

Rest in peace savings. You will be missed.