10-4, Bumblebee

I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: May 9, 2026

Prompt: “What automobile models did your ancestors have?  Pick an ancestor and share something about their cars.”

Introduction

My father Bob Anderson’s first car after the divorce needed to be a cheap workhorse, so he could travel hundreds of miles every other weekend for custodial time (then called visitation), and he had little cash to spare. He found a yellow/orange two-door Vega. It looked very much like this one except orange with a black horizontal stripe.

Figure 1 A Chevrolet Vega similar to Dad’s, though his was more orange and had a black horizontal stripe.

Discussion

There were three of us, ages 3-8, and we sat in the backseat (no child seat laws at that time) because the front seat had no seat belts, but the back seat did. Dad used a CB radio much like I use Waze now but for two-way communication. With Citizens Band, everyone chose a nickname or handle, and Dad was Bumblebee, because of the car. (Later he got a silver car and was happy to change his handle to Silver Shadow.)

Those car trips went on for a decade. I’m amazed Dad was able to do it. Later, Dad was so burned out from driving, and I generally handled the long-ish trips. But I have very fond memories in that car and the ones that followed (anybody remember the K-cars?) because they enabled family time.

A “Weekend Fathers” newspaper article featuring Dad and one of the cars that followed the Vega. Seeing Dad described that way in print still stops me, because those exhausting weekends were not abstract to us. They were how he stayed present.

Looking back, those cars were never just transportation. They were how Dad kept showing up, one long weekend drive at a time. 10-4, Bumblebee.

AI Disclosure

This post was written by me with the help of AI tools for organization and editing. The memories, family details, and reflections are my own.