"Finding Janice" by Cody S

                  It was a brisk Sunday morning, around the same time of the month as it is now. After waiting weeks, it was finally the day. We were on our way to the Pomona Swap-meet, one of the biggest car selling and buying events in California, specifically classic cars and vintage Volkswagens. We were on our way to look for my dream first car: an old Volkswagen beetle. We arrived and once we walked through the gates I was in awe, it was the most Volkswagens I’d ever seen in one place, there were rows and rows, at least 300 cars in total. Once we were in, it was time for the fun part, finding the right car for the right price. We walked through the rows and kept a sharp eye, and about three hours later we had narrowed it down to about 3 cars. A blue 1959, a teal 1968, and a black 1969. We began looking at the ’59, because it was my favorite out of the 3.  At first look, the car was a steal, it was lowered and on rims, and had the original paint job, which really added to the vintage look of the car, and the motor looked to be in good condition. As we began to look closer, we noticed it had the wrong tail lights for that model year, and a few other things led us to believe it most likely wasn’t a 1959, but that didn’t diminish our interest too much.  We looked under the car, and there was the reason this guy was getting rid of the car for so cheap. All throughout the bottom of the car there was holes due to rust, to where you could see into the car. Sadly, this wasn’t the one, it would’ve been too much work to get it safely drivable. So, we moved on to the black ’69, and it was a short look, because the seller was firm on his price, which was out of our price range. Another one was gone, and we were down to one final option, the teal 1968. We looked and everything seemed right. It was newly painted and the interior was recently restored. It was in our price range and the motor ran great. The guy bought the car as a gift for his wife, but she ended up not liking it because of the manual transmission (stick shift). We took the guys number, and decided to take another look around to see if there were any other options, because as the day goes on people get more desperate and prices lower, so we were hoping to get lucky. As we walked down one row, a white beetle had just sold, for half the price that was listed earlier in the day! We had just missed a really good deal, and I started to get discouraged that we wouldn’t find the car of my dreams.  Out of the 3 cars we looked at, only one met all our requirements, the teal car. Now I liked the teal car, but I didn’t love it. The body style of beetles changed in 1967, they got wider and all the lights got bigger and bulkier. I personally didn’t like this, but I really wanted to drive home in a new car, so I told my dad I could settle for this one. Based on my body language, my dad could tell I didn’t really like this one, and so he asked me if I was sure this was the one I wanted. It took everything I had to muster up the two-letter word I responded with, “No.” Sadly we got in our car and drove home with still only one set of keys, not two. Although I didn’t get my car yet, there was still time left in the day, so I hopped on craigslist. I looked for about 30 seconds until I got to an ad for a 1962 beetle, right in my price range, located in chino. I asked my dad if we could go look at it, and he agreed. On our way there, I had a good feeling, like this was the one. We got to the In-N-Out that we had agreed to meet the guy at and he wasn’t there yet. About 20 minutes passed and he still hadn’t shown up, and I started to get really nervous this guy was going to be a no show. Just as I was about to give up, I saw him come around the corner, and I instantly fell in love with the car. It was everything I wanted, new interior, older model, sleeker body, and a good running motor. We went on a test drive and it didn’t take much to sell us on the car, we knew it was the one. It was one of the best moments of my life, literally a dream come true. As soon as I arrived home with my car the first thing I did was name her. I got my inspiration right from the 60s and named her after the famous Janice Joplin, one of my favorite artists from that time.  I guess if I had to take a lesson out of all this, it would definitely be to never settle, because if I would’ve settled I would’ve missed out on the deal of a lifetime.