IMBROKE2 1990 - 2008

So this summer my Dad had to say goodbye to his 1990 Toyota Corolla. After 18 years of service, it finally had to go (16 years if you don't count the 2 years it spent sitting in the driveway). The car is an institution in the Capital District, with it's many distinctive features: Rust Holes the size of your foot, a back bumper that has been hanging down, seemingly about to fall off, for the past 10 years, an ugly, discolored hood and of course the famous IMBROKE2 license plate.

Reaction to his loss was varied:

• His coworkers suggested having the car mounted on top of building in Albany, replacing the U-Haul truck.
  
• My brother Frankie's friends, having been the recepients of many a 3:00am sober ride home, desperately tried to convince him to keep the car.
  
• Bill, the manager at the Tire Warehouse in Troy (where most of the nearly weekly repairs and maintenance was done) wept for three days at the loss of his biggest cash cow.
  
• The neighbors cheered at the removal of the neighborhood eyesore.

Those aren't rust holes, it's just extra ventilation.

The bumper sticker reads:
"This Car Is A Status Symbol. It Symbolizes Me Being Poor."

My favorite story about the IMBROKE2 takes place just a few short months after my Dad bought the car...his first brand new car since 1972. He got it in the late summer/early fall of 1990. That November he was driving home from work and on his way to pick up my brother at the YMCA after school program. He was going over Burdette Ave when a Troy High School student pulled out of the THS parking lot in front of him. Did I mention that it was freezing raining?

As he pulled into our driveway my mother and I looked out at the car. The hood was crumpled and bent nearly in half. Both headlights were still working but one was now pointed up at the sky. He was so angry that for almost 30 minutes he could only say "Not now" in answer to our questions. The worst part was that he had to use his old car until the Corolla was fixed so it was back in the school bus for me.