How I loved that car. My sister and I always riding in the way back, no seat-belt laws back then, sliding back and forth on the bare metal cargo deck, waving and making stupid faces at the cars behind. That was the beginning of my love affair with the station wagon.

All my cars have been wagons, save a Datsun pick-up in high-school which was given to me. I have been asked " Is this your wife's car? " which I would reply " Wife? No, it's mine, my mother always told me to buy a car you could sleep in if you had to."

Mom never said that, she drove a sedan. I guess the white lie I would tell to mainly strangers or folks just winking in and out of my life was easier and less vulnerable than the truth. The truth of the matter is that the station wagon represents the time in my life, as in the picture, when my parents were still together. The time when the pain of divorce and the struggle of a single mother hadn't branded our lives.

And, you can sleep in it if you have to.