The car in question
Thursday, December 14, 2006
PERHAPS THERE IS something to all this “War on Christmas” fuss.
An Emporia story:
The disreputable old car had been sitting for months at the curb in a northwest Emporia neighborhood. In the car’s youth, it had been a convertible. In extreme old age, it had become a rusty hulk with no top at all — just a few rotting shreds of canvas back where the top used to fold down.
The car apparently belonged to one of the young men who rented the house the car sat in front of. As far as the neighbors could tell, the car was never moved. It was there in the summer, open to the rain. When the leaves began to fall, they filled the car. When snow finally came, it turned the car’s interior into a sculpted fantasy of ice and snow.
The police never marked the car for towing. Perhaps none of the neighbors ever complained about it. Nobody needed the parking space and no one wanted to make trouble for the car’s owner or owners.
But last week, things changed. One day, the young men in the house used one of their trucks to nudge the car up into the front yard, where they parked it at a jaunty angle. They strung a line of green Christmas lights along the street side of the car.
At night, when darkness hid the rust spots, the pitted chrome and the tattered canvas, the car, lit only by the little green lights, looked like a shiny Christmas present.
Then one day, when there was no darkness to be kind to the old car, a police car cruised slowly up the street and stopped. A police officer got out and looked up at the old wreck. She shook her head, walked slowly up into the yard and slipped a yellow ticket under the windshield wiper.
The next day, the car was back in the street, stripped of its lights, its interior filled with old, discarded furniture. Obviously, it would be gone soon.
Here are some questions:
Was the car ticketed because it was moved from the street to the yard? Was it ticketed because some neighbor finally complained? Or was it ticketed just because its owner aspired to make it a Christmas decoration?
Emporia has seen worse Christmas yard art — take the beer-can tree that was in The Gazette last week. What is the line between junk and decoration in Emporia yards?
Would the car have been ticketed in there had been an inflatable Santa behind the steering wheel? What if figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had been riding in the back seat? What if the hood were opened to display a bed of poinsettias?
We don’t think that there is a war on Christmas, and are happy to be wished either “Merry Christmas” or “Happy holidays” — or “Happy Chanukah,” for that matter. It’s the good will that counts, and the sharing of joy.
But it should be noted that the poor old car was less offensive as a Christmas decoration than it was as a curbside junker.
hottopics (anonymous) says...
Well it is true that the city is trying to crack down on cars being junked on properties or parked in yards. I for one appreciate the effort to clean up the neighborhoods. But I do however support your questioning of it becoming a temporary decoration. I think it was bad timing on your part having a officer issue you the warning. One, she was just doing her job whether she wanted to or not. Maybe all you need to do is inform the city of your Holiday Spirit intentions and that you intend to remove it as do 'most' people with their decorations after the season has passed. Good Luck to you and the ol car.
December 14, 2006 at 4:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )