HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR AMAZON! (MY LIFE IN THE AMAZON)
When I was a young child I lived in the Amazon. You see, long before I had heard about the famous river or about the mythological Amazon, I lived in my parents' Amazon.
This was the early 1960s, which was relatively non-turbulent in Sweden, at least compared to America and for a child. While particulars of the Amazon, such as its yellow exterior and red seats, a kind of gliding surface, made an impression on me and were confirmed when years later I looked at photos of my father's Amazon (it was more his than my mother's, a real pride in being able to drive and take care of the automobile), it is the stream of memories that stays with me and begins to flow as I write this sentence. I just cannot do a subject-verb construction and leave it at that--unless I enter the territory of, "The Amazon was safe."
How different then my father's and my Amazon from the river so huge and winding and home and death of many explorers and seekers of material things. Our Amazon came during a time when my father, and I suppose others did, too, took pride in being able to buy a Volvo Amazon, just as he took pride in being able to take his family on what would today be considered a modest vacation. It was the good kind of pride, in the form of a sense of accomplishment and the happy family life that came with it.
Much of this family life took of course place outside of our Amazon. When I said that I lived as a young child in the Amazon, I am speaking of the excursion my family took and the part the Amazon was of our protected existence.
I have memories of eating an ice cream on one of our excursions to the zoo. Visiting relatives for birthdays and weddings, when such visits were not a burden or an obligation, not even to my parents. Trips to the grocery store. My father driving our only automobile, the Amazon to work, my memory being his leaving and more exciting, coming home. The Amazon was something good, solid, comforting.
I am not a person who is usually or easily attached to cars. My head does not turn when such and such models drive by, and I could not tell you what car model I am looking at most of the time. But I can see and spot that Amazon anywhere and anytime, instinctively, if it is in the vicinity.
Sightings have been more rare recently, as I live in the Deep South in America, but perhaps there are Amazons hiding in the northern part of the state where woods and trout and a more mountainous region are calling.
But my life in the Amazon lives on with me wherever I go, and there are moments the car appears, young parents and very young child waving, all this set off today by the Volvo Amazon's birthday. Happy Birthday Dear Amazon!
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SuperSwede
With a foot on each side of the Atlantic SuperSwede will keep all of us - Swedes, Americans and Swedish Americans alike - on track. |