Tulsa Wheels

     When we lived in Oklahoma and the Hubby worked at Phillips, his immediate boss, who I will call H, held a department meeting, I think it was every week, around the conference room table. One day at the end of a meeting, H said he had a personal topic to ask advice on. He and his wife lived in Tulsa, a 50 mile drive to Bartlesville every day. They chose Tulsa so their two boys could attend one of the private schools there.

     H's older son was about to turn sixteen, and H thought that he would give his wife's car to his son on his birthday, and he would buy a brand new car for his wife. Sounds like a practical plan and wonderful gifts to both his wife and his son, doesn't it? Well it is a great idea if you are all grown up and thinking about people other than yourself. But, not surprisingly, H's son was not at all pleased with this plan. In fact he informed his parents that he would not be caught dead driving his mother's car to school. It was just not going to happen. And then the son told his parents the exact make and model of the brand new car he wanted for himself which would be acceptable for him to show up at school driving. A yellow sports car.

     H's question in the conference room that day was, “What should he do?”

There were plenty of opinions spoken – all of them in favor of the father and maturity and not giving in to the teenager with the attitude.

     H then said, “Ah, but there is only one person here who has a child older than sixteen, and I want to hear how he would have handled, or did handle, this situation.”

     All eyes turned to Fritz.

     Fritz's daughter was in college.

     “When my daughter was sixteen, she had a car all picked out that she wanted. We could not afford that car, nor would we have just given it to her just for the asking if we could have afforded it. But my wife and I thought long and hard about what car to get for her because we knew where she would be going to college. And the college is a three hour drive away. We did not want to spoil her with a fancy car, yet we did want her to have something that was reliable and would get her to and from college for four years and give us peace of mind while she was on the road. So we ended up buying a brand new car for her when she was sixteen, but it was not the fancy car of her choice.”

      Fritz seemed a little worried that the rest of his colleagues would feel he had still spoiled his daughter, but when I heard that story later, I appreciated the practicality of it and told myself to remember it as our daughters got to be driving.

      As for H, he bought the exact car that his son had been demanding. And H's wife did not get a new car. One Saturday morning H asked his son for the key – H was going to take the fancy wheels for a spin – and his son said no.

      I wonder where those wheels finally got him?

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