college kids and their cars

Yesterday, I was talking to a couple of college kids interning with my nonprofit and it amazed me when I learned that they both had cars!

In my day, of your 2 dozen or so main friends, one, maybe two, of you had cars. For certain, come weekend or party time, you'd see up to 10-12 of us crammed in that little beat up second hand Yugo or Toyota Tercel. We exchanged a share of groceries in exchange for a ride to the grocery store. We rode the school shuttle or the city bus. We carpooled. We walked. We biked. We subway trained it. We didn't have cars! It's a different world and what a difference a decade makes huh?

I shouldn't be surprised because I live in a college town and am reminded that all these kids have cars whenever I venture down to the local shopping center and can't find a parking spot! Winter and Spring Break and Summers are my favorite time of the year because otherwise the lot is brimming with coeds. EVERYWHERE! like cockroaches!

And as I've bitched about before, I'd get fed up seeing four friends arrive in four different cars, park in 4 different parking spots and convene in one spot and then walk across the street to the watering hole...and the darn watering hole isn't even a resident of the shopping center!

You mean to tell me (1) you lazy bums couldn't have walked the few hundred yards to the bar or ( 2.) you all couldn't have arranged for one of you to pick up the others and arrive in one car!?!?!

hrmph!

Yes, my friends, I have turned into that angry crazy local with the unruly hair who mumbles under her breath as she walks about waving a walking stick and sporadically shouting "RAH!" for dramatic effect