By
Obododimma Oha
That car would pass and you would say to your friends : "That will be my car!" Another friend would call it his own, you would protest vehemently, and call witnesses. This colonization of future cars continues. Now, everybody knows everybody's future car. Sad. You don't have a penny for the car yet.
Childhood could be full of dreams of greatness. Indeed, there could be a state governor or even president in that crowd of urchins with protruding bellies and runny noses. Yes, childhood was that time in one's life for dreaming dreams. In some cases, we followed our dreams, but in some, our dreams followed us.
I am sure you would be wondering why cars were the attraction. Well, as children, we felt that cars were great marvels. Imagine! You enter them and the next moment, "voooom!" It was just wonderful. Moving houses! And one can take this house from Onitsha to Calabar and will not fear rain or sunshine. Little wonder, as children, we went for cars.
One did not have to buy the car to own one, although one was not an armed robber or somebody working for a company or government. We owned the cars we saw passing. That was enough.
But that also meant that the technology of cars, moving houses, was near us. It started with identifying one's car to knowing its behavior. Why wouldn't one recognize one's house? Even with eyes shut!
The dream of a big car followed one, even to the university. I remember that I saw my dream car during my university matriculation and quickly posed for a photograph in front of it. One of my childhood friends saw the car, popularly called "German Mistake" in the photo and was still jealous. He said, obviously sad with himself: "Oh, but you are yet to bring the car home. It's only a photo." I knew the car was just a beginning and smiled. One can always begin with fiction. Fact later.
These days when one cannot fuel one's car or get out of a heavy traffic, I know that it is not enough to own a car. One can own a car and own trouble.
You may think that one is just living in the past. But don't I see the same excitement on the faces of these young people when they display their worship of big cars? OK, look at jeep, called "Ọkwụ ọtọ ekele eze" (The one who stands while greeting the king) in Igbo discourses and how young people will cluster around it. They no longer give that honor to Peugeot and Volkswagen cars. It is the same fiction at work!
Consider car owners and that same tendency to worship the moving house. When that moving house is wiped or washed, don't you see the respect it attracts? And the space it occupies? When that adventurous elementary school child comes and signs his new signature on the body of the washed car, doesn't the pained owner leave his food and run out, screaming :"My car! My car! He has ruined it!"?
Our headmaster, a big person, owned a big car. Our catechist, too. Even the priest, although bought for him. All drove big cars and had their keys to display. One hoped to drive a big car. Big people, big cars, with jingling keys!
Now that we have talked of car owners, one has remembered another social humor involving cars. I once saw a casket designed as a car! The painful idea is that somebody would drive it into the spiritworld. I hope that there is gas there and that it is not very expensive. I hope that the traffic, especially on weekends, is not very heavy. By the way, what currency do they use? I hope it is not the same as our local wallpaper!
Well, the idea of putting humor in a death experience is like going too far. Please, let me quickly return to our childhood discourse and proclaim that such a car is not mine. "It is not mine! I have witnesses. Antoni, were you not there? I did not choose this car or say it is my future own! "
Now, you know what it means to own a car. That other car is yours, not mine!
That settles it. This arrogance about owning a moving house - - from childhood to adulthood - - I have even disowned the Peugeot 505 that I used to colonize in those days. It is no longer built for roads in my life. It could be a casket model, who knows?
One has to address this problem of ownership: even some countries join in owning cars, not just children. Have you not heard of slogans like: "Built for XYZ roads"? Maybe it was from there I got my childhood fascination and colonization. One has to be careful, for the roads are terrible metaphors!
In childhood, one owned a big car, but adulthood has ruined it now with tragic models. So, farewell, car ownership. I now know that my childhood is gone forever, too! One can no longer own big cars that drive past. Adulthood will come with its own visual logic!
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