Like most people, I remember my first car very well. The high school I went to was in an upper middle-class area, and most of the kids had really nice cars. I remember one of the teachers saying that the student parking lot looked like that of a fine automobile used car center. Most of the cars were hand-me-downs from the students’ parents and were only a few years old. My parents were not rich but did very well and my father was always fond of cars-especially old Corvettes. Each of the children in our family was allotted a certain amount of money, and we were told to use it wisely; we could get a new car or a nicer used one. My sister chose a lesser new car after a year or so with my mother’s old car, and my other sister chose a used Honda. I had always been fond of the Jeep CJ-7’s and was planning to buy a used one for my sixteenth birthday choice of cars. There was a place called CJ’s Unlimited about an hour into the mountains of north Georgia, and I frequented it often. As fate may have it, the local Chrysler/Jeep/Eagle dealership had a Jeep CJ advertised, so I went to see it. Like I said, as fate may have had it, the dealership had also recently become an Alfa Romeo dealership. I had never been close to an Alfa, so when I went to look at the Jeep, I perused the lot; it was love at first sight. I knew I couldn’t afford a brand new one, but I began looking in the Auto Trader magazine (yes, I’m that old) for a used one within my price range. I eventually found one in our area and my father and mother spent just that little more money than they did for my sisters, and I’m still grateful all these years later. The character Arthur gets a convertible for his fifteenth birthday, and Gabriel also gets a very nice gift the following year. These gifts in the book are modeled after the gift, and other unique gifts as well, that my parents gave to me throughout my lifetime.

The first really amazing expensive item my father and mother bought me was a GT, bright blue and pink, Pro Performer bicycle. I had worked mowing lawns in our neighborhood throughout the spring and my parents said they would match what I had made to purchase the bike I wanted. When we finally got it, me and my friend Chad would ride along all through the town, going to bike shops and fast-food restaurants all summer. It is quite unique how real-life slips into our writing as we age. That life-long lesson we have learned somehow seems great enough to us to share it with the world. I believe my siblings, parents, and friends were great enough to share with the world. Godspeed…