My first car was a 1974 AMC Javelin…a 282 cu in 4.6l straight six (I don’t know what any of that means) cylinder with 200 hp (I knew 200 horsepower meant she would go fast!)…the price tag – $600. It was the fall of 1985…I was 16 years old…and this car would symbolize everything for me about becoming a man and shedding all those things in my life that caused me pain…about leaving so much behind and racing into a future that was all mine to discover. My friends quickly christened her ‘the Wease-Mobile’ appropriate and fitting given my high school nickname ‘Wease-Man’ (a name I earned as a result of my asthma)…she was fast and sleek and sexy and she was everything this 16 year old boy with his drivers license needed her to be…a surrogate girlfriend, ha ha ha. Still, we were legendary…like the time Blaine, with his brand new Chevy S10, lost decidedly in a midnight 40km drag race to Courtenay…literally burning off the rear tires in an epic, though ignited diesel fuel induced smoke show…cruising around town with my pals with the 8-track cranked – before retro was cool…outrunning the police up General Hill and looping back around the John Hart Dam and down across the wooden bridge, and racing back up the hill to get to a party at McIvor Lake only to be pulled over by the same cop and given a warning! The Wease-Mobile was much more than my first car…she was the protective casing that shielded me through some some reckless, stupid and foolish events…she also transported me through an essential right of passage. I emerged feeling worthy and redeemed and in control of my destiny…I broke free of so many burdens and finally discovered myself…and in doing so I think became the man I needed to be.
The Wease-Mobile…1974
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Lawrence Lewis
“We’re having too much fun today. We ain’t thinking about tomorrow.” -John Dillinger
About Lawrence Lewis
I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂