The Adoption of Old Blue

Dear Readers,
Meet our new family member. Old Blue, as he has been named, is old enough to purchase his own alcohol if he so desired, though he prefers only gasoline (unleaded, please - his gas gauge requests).

Yes, that is a tape deck! I have a tape deck! The historical geek in me is absolutely thrilled to bits! Now I need cassette tapes! I know I have lots of Byzantine and Russian chant on cassette! Obviously, I shall be requiring more!

I drooled over these gauges the whole way home. I just love the boxy 80s look, they're so cool.
Okay, now really, we as a society are so out of touch when it comes to what constitutes luxury in a car. Luxury is not a navigational system that will happily direct you into buildings - rather, it is having plush velvet armchairs for front seats (above) and a couch in back (below).
Old Blue is an '88 Mercury Grand Marquis, a family heirloom generously passed down to us from a generous relative. I learned to drive in a 70-something Plymouth Grand Fury III jokingly named Christine (after the Stephen King novel by the same name), and fondly remember family road trips with ALL SIX of us in one car, comfortable as can be. Three in front, three in the back, and forget leg room, we children had sprawl room. Spread out a bit, have your bag with books and games or whatever in front of you, life was grand and glorious. Why, oh why, do they not make cars like that anymore? Forget having a TV screen in my car, I want plushness and comfort and sprawl room! Surely, surely you could take the interior dimensions of these ocean liners of the road and partner it with one of today's smaller, more efficient engines. Much easier to get in and out of than a minivan or an SUV.
And now, should Kittyboy happen to actually attain the roof of our house (for which he strives repeatedly, attempting to climb our backyard TV antenna that looks exactly like a ladder) and fall off of it, or do something similarly dramatic, I have a vehicle with which to go to the doctor! This is to be my "round about town" car - just around town, gentle driving, this is a car to coddle and pamper. I also think Old Blue will look quite handsome and dignified in the church parking lot. The perfect car for a leisurely Sunday morning and afternoon drive to somewhere two miles away!