In Depth Analysis – Cassidy Senior and His Car
19 Jun 2010
Buses, Car Free, generations, walking No Comments
So it’s not just this generation of Cassidys giving up the car. Chris and Aud (aka Mum and Dad) gave their car up a year ago. Chris was 83 and was less confident driving, and the car needed a lot of work after failing its MOT. Chris decided enough is enough.
Chris told my sister (Suzi) and I about his decision when we visited. Audrey asked us to go to the “other room” where Chris was waiting to tell us “some news”.
Suzi and I looked at each other: after 50 years of marriage had they decided tom split up?
Chris is not a man of speeches. This was an event. Chris looked at us and started:
“Listen, I have something to tell you. Now I don’t want you worrying, or talking us out of it, but me and your Mum have been talking and we’ve made a decision….”
My Mum later told me that she had cried when they decided to give up the car. They had always had a car, struggling to keep it running at times as we were never flush with cash.
Audrey said that she felt that this was the end of their independence, their flexibility.
Since then they have got used to walking to the local shops for most of needs, with a weekly walk to the town centre (about 2 miles away). Audrey says they are lucky that they have a nice local community, and the good buses. Audrey catches the bus into town quite often too – always has. Chris has never caught a bus and will never. He has no knee cap on this right knee (awful accident aged four – in hospital til he was 13, crutches, callipers, nearly an amputation) and has always said that he would be unstable on a bus. Can’t sit down. This is probably true to an extent – but old habits die hard.
He walks to the pub everyday for his 1.5 pints. Not bad at 84. They say they don’t really miss the car, and Suzi takes them to the supermarket once in a while for a big shop (Suzi lives an hour away). But one thing is for sure, they feel better off – the car was a drain on resources.
What a car it was – Suzuki Swift – 21 years old and 50,000 miles!!! One (very) careful owner