On August 5, 2005 I wrote a Check to Betty and Dean Strom for $1,950 to purchase one 1999 Ford Escort. I think the agreed on price with $4,000 and I paid them the rest of the money over the next year or so. I bought the car for Sarah because she had been stranded on the way back from University of IL when the old and pretty crappy J2000 she was driving stalled. Dean and Betty sold me the car I think because they didn’t want their cheap grandson-in-law to continue to have their grand-daughter drive a crappy car across the state once a month. Sarah was happy to have something reliable.

Reflecting on the time I remember thinking I was broke but looking back at my accounts things were not so bad. I had $5,000 in my savings account and $4,000 in my checking account. Looking over my finances It doesn’t look like the family ran out of money until September 2007 before Claire was born when I fixed the roof above the three seasons room. At that point my total cash wealth was a few hundred dollars. But I digress, the story is about the car not money.

So Dean sold me the Escort and Sarah liked the car. It was white with a brown interior and Dean had dropped a cigar on the drivers seat and melted a bit of the cloth interior, but there was no hole. Dean was a nice guy. He popped the hood and he showed me where he wrote in permanent marker 69,500 the millage of the car at its last oil change. He showed me the horn he had bolted to a random mount on the frame. I guess the horn had failed at some point and Dean had fixed it by removing the horn from a old junk car he had and wiring it in. The remainder of the cars time the horn was a funny weak thing that barely made much noise. Its nice to remember Dean, he died in 2013.

One issue with the Escort was it would “shake” when at idle.
I was worried something was wrong with the car so I took it to Sexton Ford twice. On the second time the tech called me after tightening down the motor mounts and said: “Mr. Maidak Ford has determined that a shaking is a ‘characteristic’ of this model of Escort so it cannot be fixed”. Funny, after this I really just stopped worrying about it and it no longer bothered me.

Sarah drove the Escort from 2005 until January 2010 when we got the Uplander Minivan before Charlotte was born. So it was basically the only car Maddie and Claire rode in for their early lives. Probably the most funny memory was in the summer of 2008 we loaded of the young family in the Escort. 4 year old maddie and 10 month old Claire and drove the small Escort to Wisconsin Dells for our first family vacation. I didn’t think much of it at the time but when we pulled up the hotel some random guy was like: “Man you’ve got that little car loaded down”.

After 2010 I mostly drove the Escort. It was an easy car to drive and the old 1995 Ford Ranger I had driven for years was a pain to use when picking up kids so the Escort became a nice car for me to use to transport the children. After about 4 years of this and honestly some pretty bad neglect by myself the Escort started to develop the tell tale rust that would define its later life.

I was in a few fender benders in the Escort. Only one was notable. While I was driving home after work a woman took a left in front of me on a one way. I slammed on the brakes but still ran into her car. The Escort bumper ended up with a small hole torn in it. Her cars rear drivers side door was pretty crunched. I got out of the car and she accused me of hitting her. When I pointed out it was a one way and she realized her error she proceeded to tell me she didn’t have insurance. She asked if I was OK and when I said yes she drove off. Part of me was annoyed by this but the other part of me was just happy to drive home and not be late after work. So in the end it wasn’t that big a deal and its a bit of a funny story to tell.

Sometime around 2014 I drove the Escort out to my mother’s house. Was not able to drive it home as one of the driver side ujoints or tie rod end broke stranding the car in the driveway. Mom was nice enough to let me drive her car home and then she took the Escort to be repaired. The mechanic suggested she junk the car but she fixed it for me for $900. He had to cut the front drivers side rotor off with a torch it was so rusted. I’m thankful my mom did this for me as it greatly extended the Escorts usable life. Thanks Mom!

From 2016 to 2020 were pretty rough years for the Escort. It developed pretty bad under body rust. But these are my best memories of the Escort because I was able to fix its many issues:

• I cleaned out the throttle body that was plugged with carbon
• The rear struts failed and I replaced them.
• The headliner fell and I glued it back up
• The rear brake lines rusted out and I replaced them.
• The transmission speed sensor failed and I replaced it
• The serpentine belt failed and I replaced it.

What I liked about owning the Escort is I felt I could fix it. What I also liked about it is it maintained my relationship with my less wealthy past. I feel like I’ve become much rich, the Escort helped me appreciate what things are like when you don’t have money. I could also park it anywhere in Rock Island and not worry about it being stolen :D

The repairs I did on the car were fun because they challenged me to figure out something and it was safe to fail. The car was basically worthless at this point, so I had very little to lose should I fail to repair the car. Working on the Escort became increasingly hard though as the rust consumed everything. Replacing the rear struts took a full two weeks as I broke the bolts and had to drill them out. It was brutal, but I got it done.

The final repair for the Escort was the serpentine belt. I drove to the high school to pick up my daughter to go to the orthodontist and the belt shredded in the parking lot. I was worried I was going to have to call a tow from the High School parking lot, but luckily I was able to get the car home before the battery discharged. When I jacked up the car to repair the belt I inspected the frame and it did not look good. In fact I was concerned I heard it crack on the way up. I did replace the belt and drive the Escort for a another 6 or so months but that was it. I think I lost trust in the car at that point.

So now it is time to say goodbye. I have quite a few fond memories of the car. I remember after I repaired the brake lines I took Maddie and her friends to McDonalds joking I was testing the brakes on them. I remember building my unique tool to extract the old ruined speed sensor from the transmission and I remember joking with people about how crappy my car was. All off these are good memories. In the next week or so the Escort will be sold for scrap. The car will be gone, I hope the memories remain for a long time.