By Gina Stearns
I hate to admit it but in the late 80’s, I was one of the 141,000 people who owned a Yugo, an experimentally cheap compact car from Yugoslavia. At the time, it brought many nightmares, while still being the source of many laughs too. My family has told a ton of jokes about my old car, if one can call a Yugo a car.
My having purchased a Yugo was fallout from a very stormy divorce. I didn’t really have much choice. Long gone were the dreamy days of driving a Honda Accord. It was an easy automatic, but the Yugo was a stubborn standard. Part of that aftershock was an agreement to receive lessons in driving standard from my soon-to-be Ex. So, when I first got the car, I had one, that’s right, ONE lesson. Some people do not know the difference between singular and plural. It seems that a good deal of my life has been to be trained without a whole lot of help or preparation, but despite the learning curve, I seem to acquire the ability to do the hard things alone. Or so it initially appears. Actually, the Lord has always been near or with me, and that is my only real claim to success. Still, I did not get the idea of how the Yugo’s gears worked, much like my recent experience with my new mountain bike. But that is a story for another time. Despite my inexperience, I would once drive that Yugo uphill and it would sputter out because I kept thinking higher altitude, bigger gear, right? Wrong! I stood there with my foot on the break with a strong decline behind me. The only thing I could do was to back down — bit by bit. I remember telling my father-in-law, wondering what I should do next time. He gave great advice that I never forgot — accompanied with a teary-eyed chuckle.
PRACTICAL LESSON LEARNED: Gina, “You shift down, you don’t back down.” I laughed with him relieving the extended anxiety of that event. His kind instruction and sense of humor helped me to keep driving standard.
SPIRITUAL LESSON LEARNED: Sometimes wisdom makes no sense until after you need it. But then it helps in future situations.
In addition, that car was a bit of a challenge to drive it because of its mechanical deficiency. My Yugo always seemed to refuse to start whenever it got wet. I was told that it was water in the distributor cap. What did that mean? All I knew was that it was very unreliable. Depending on where it was, it could prove to be very dangerous and terrifying. One time in the middle of a huge city intersection, it had conked out. Really? I was already stressed out as a single mom who was carrying her most precious cargo. My three daughters who were small back then were there in the Yugo in the middle of this chaos. Of course it was raining too. I did what I had to and got out and started pushing it out of the intersection. One of the advantages to having a tiny, lightweight car is that I could pretty much move it all by myself. And I did! I got out and started to push that baby-ballasted Yugo off the main road. All of a sudden, a couple of police officers came along and offered to help while I got back inside and steered it. I landed write in a parking spot in front of a Christian book shop where the girls and I browsed until the rain stopped. That part was a blessing.
PRACTICAL LESSON: I can do hard things when it came to providing and protecting my girls.
SPIRITUAL LESSON: God will move me out of danger’s way even if he has to use law enforcement to do that. He may also afterward place me in a heavenly haven.
As time went on, I could better drive that Yugo, and I was happily getting to my teaching job at school. Usually that car ran on prayer, and family would joke about how all its corrosion was a result of having been stuck on the top level of the ship coming out of Yugoslavia. A friend had heard that the Yugo is totaled out at just 40 mph. Lovely! Just what I needed to hear! Another comment was made about how I would get exceptional gas mileage because I can never get much travel out of that tin can, so a tank would last forever. That was actually true. In addition, my brother-in-law thought it would be the funniest thing if I got a Mack Truck horn installed for my car, that way whenever I hit it, a concerned driver in front of me would look back and instead of huge eighteen-wheeler they would barely see me and my wee car. Eye roll. But it was mine, and at least I had a way to travel –some of the time.
One time I had parked the car right in front of the Shur-fine Market and ran into the store to grab one gallon of milk. I locked the three girls in the Yugo and since the lot was fairly level, I thought I was fine to not engage the emergency break. I dashed in, got the milk and paid for it, all in less than five minutes. I ran out to get into my car and… it was gone! I was astounded and started looking directly ahead, but instead the car had slowly curved left into the parking lot, and inside were three very different reactions from each of my three little girls. Rachel, the oldest was crying probably thinking she was going to die (maybe she had heard about the car totaling at such a low speed). Then I saw Sarah’s little head bobbing up and down in laughter; she thought the whole thing hysterical. But smack in the middle was Hannah who remained unflappable with her thumb in her mouth. She just calmly looked at both her sisters, out the window, and never seemed to have a care.
PRACTICAL LESSON: Always put on the emergency break.
SPIRITUAL LESSON: Each of us had a different lens with which to assess situations. Tears or laughs can be a reaction depending on your perspective, but calm in the midst of trial is the wisest way to react. Go Hannah!
Winters could be grueling with that little Yugo because the left windshield wiper didn’t operate correctly. I am giggling just remembering the crazy way it would slide left and then never come back to center because it would move past and over the left edge of the car and there it got stuck in a repetitive spasm, never to return to clean the windshield. Have you ever had to drive shift stick and then put your left hand out on the windshield so it would hit your hand enough to return to the center of the window and then down? It’s a killer on cold, snowy days, and not the safest way to drive. But I did that too!
Practical lesson: Never buy a Yugo, no matter what!!!!
Spiritual Lesson: Sometimes we just don’t know or understand the lesson, but we never give up knowing that God strengthens us for what seems the impossible.
I have many more stories about that Yugo, but I do believe one thing about its design—short is sweet especially when it comes to blog-writing, so I will end it here. “YouGo”, my friend! And remember, drive safely; depend on God fully!
Deserts Like Eden 