The Bubble Car

Last weekend, we saw one of our friends, Matt, that we have not seen in years. The last time we saw him was when we gave him our car...the bubble car.

About six years ago, we were driving around town in the only vehicle we owned which was a box truck that had all of our equipment in it. I was tired of walking thru the drivethru at our bank because the truck didn't make the clearance height. Plus, we needed to get another vehicle for tax purposes. We had $1,000 to spend, so we decided that if we could find a car for under $1,000 that day, we would buy it.

We found one that day. It was $990 with tax. It was beyond ugly. This car was spray painted silver and had clear ball ornaments all over the entire car. A third grade class had decorated the car for an art car parade in Houston. It was hideous!

The car was an '86 Celebrity. When we drove it around town, it attracted alot of attention. People would stop and take pictures with our car. Some people actually recognized it from the parade that was on television. In fact, we almost created some accidents. Drivers would be so distracted by the car that they would almost run into objects.

We had to do something to not attract so much attention, so we removed each ball individually. That took a while. It didn’t do much good. The silicone used to attach the balls remained on the car causing it to be polka dotted. We later tried to scrape off the silicone, but to no avail. It was there to stay!

We used that car for a while and it served its purpose. After about a year, we gave it to Matt because we were about to move into our truck and live on the road. Matt's car had just died the week before so he was in need of some wheels.

Whenever Matt came to pick it up, he fell over laughing at how ugly it was. He used it for a couple of years and then gave it to someone else that needed a vehicle.

The rule was that when you were done with it, you had to give it to someone else in need of a car. The bubble car has been passed around to at least 5 people now.