Last week I went up to my son’s school for some parenting job or other. I was only going to be there a few minutes, so rather than park in the front and walk all the way through the school (like I’m supposed to do), I parked in the back next to his trailer and went straight in.
While I was talking to him, a group of classmates came back from their reading group. They spotted my van parked behind the trailer, and were tremendously impressed by it.
“Is that your car?” (to my son)
“Wow, your car is great!“
…and best of all: “You guys must be rich!“
Now, I like my van. It’s comfortable, handles well, and I can take out all the seats and haul major appliances around for my friends. But it’s nothing special, just a late-90′s Pontiac we bought used from a private seller. If they’d seen the beast in the main parking lot with all the other Mom-mobiles, they wouldn’t have looked twice at it. But because it was parked back there (where it really wasn’t supposed to be), it looked all shiny and special to them.
