“But I was cool”
By Lucas McCain
02/11/08

At the age of nineteen I was fresh out of high school and still living with my parents. I was working at my first clerical job and making $24,000 a year. At that point, the only time I would save money was when I had already found a way for it to be spent. Ask any man about his first cool car, and get ready for a good story. Some of those men will tell you if they only had the car now it would be worth a lot more than the purchase price at the time. They also could tell you how much money they poured into the car.

Personally, I spent over $1,000 on car stereo equipment, $1,400 on chrome wheels and low profile tires, and an estimated $400 on special lighting and other accessories. After all that I was broke most of the time, but I was cool. I drove like an idiot and blasted my music loud through residential areas, but I was cool. The important things at that time were friends, clothes, cars, girls, and waiting for someones' parents to leave them the house for the weekend.

If I had to do it all over again, I'm not sure what I would change. I'm glad I had the fun I did when I had the chance and that no harm came to me or others. But then as I got older being cool had changed. Being twenty-one was the next 'cool'. Partying without getting into trouble was cool. All the time I had no problem holding down a full time job. But the money coming in was definitely going out. When the opportunity came around to sign up for the 401k program at my work all I saw was less money on my paycheck. So I opted out of the 401k plan and opted in for the malt liquor plan. With an overdraft fee popping up here and there and no savings I was as cool as ever.

I still had my first car and it was paid off by now. So I saved about $100 a month by not having a car payment but instead of saving it, that $100 was spent on being cool. Then one day I got into a car accident on my way to work and my first car, my love, was totaled.

I got a Honda CRX after that which was in immaculate condition. The guy I bought it off of spent months restoring it to 'like new' condition. Vowing to leave my foolish ways behind, I set out to leave this car alone. This lasted for a short time as I joined a car club and started spending money on more and more car parts. What I thought at the time to be upgrades were only causing irreversible dents in my wallet and the resale value of the vehicle. Cold air intake, coil-over suspension, stereo, and many accessories. In a short while the suspension was severely damaged and the car was permanently lowered, another consequence of the “upgrades”. I still owed the bank more money than it was starting to be worth and my coolness was coming to a screeching halt.

I put the CRX up for sale and along came a teenager looking to be cool. He convinced his father that it was the car of his dreams and the car was no longer my problem. At this point I had to regain my cool. Maybe I should find a Honda for cheap and save up money without having a payment every month. I could have made a really smart decision to put me financially ahead in life, but instead I chose cool.

I always wanted a Cadillac, as far back as I could remember. After a week or two of looking I got a loan from the bank and got myself a 1991 Cadillac Coupe Deville from a private owner. I had gotten the car of my dreams and had become as cool as I had ever been. My new ride could launch me down the road with it's 4.9 liter V8 while I sat on white leather. I never did do anything to that car and kept it completely original. Even down to the cassette tape deck the car was never altered in any way. Though keeping it running after 90,000 miles took me to the cleaners, I was cool.

Fast forwarding in time.....
On a broadcast of NPR recently, I heard a woman talking about education in a high crime area. I don't remember details but she remarked on something an african american student had told her. He said to her that he'd rather not be viewed as smart, because people would accuse him of trying to be white. In his case it wasn't cool to be smart. Sometimes we have to play a chameleon, in order stay cool and in some places in order to survive. Even if cool means following negative minded people and doing foolish things.

It has been over a decade since I got my first car and being cool has taken on a whole new meaning.

Cool - pronounced “kool”
can be used as: adjective, transitive and intransitive verb, noun, adverb, and/or interjection.

spending time with my family, volunteering in the community, networking with like minded and positive people, minding my health, patience, respect, honoring those that have past, savings accounts, 401k accounts, IRA's, investment portfolios, making wise decisions every single hour, and doing the right thing.