Week 35: '63 Cadillac Ambulance

This little diecast is particularly hip looking, part of Matchbox's 2010 Emergency Response collection. I like looking at it, the styling, the red/white with gold stripe colors, the clear siren light on top. This is a favorite.

But I almost didn't use it for Daddy's Tiny Cars.

The idea of using an ambulance for a thematically driven blog about family unnerved me. I realize things that require a ride in an ambulance are all around me, peaking in through darkened windows in my consciousness until I pull the shades on them, but I don't generally want to acknowledge their existence. 

Every time one of my kids gets sick, or takes a decent fall, I age, and my kids get sick once in awhile and fall a lot. 

Once in awhile + a lot = a whole bunch.

I age a whole bunch.

And now I'm talking about aging, and again, I don't want to think about aging and ambulances. Zip. I pull the shade.

Now I could act like the ambulance was not being used as an ambulance, like the Cadillac ambulance that the Ghost Busters drove (that was a 1959 Cadillac), but this one says "Ambulance" on the top.

No, it is clearly an ambulance. A 1963 ambulance. I was born in 1963.

I'm not sure the connection there, but it seems ominous. 

If I did have an accident myself, it might be cool in a surreal way to be zipped away in a 1963 Cadillac. I might not, however, appreciate it, depending on the circumstances, but I'd like to think I would. Regardless, my being picked up by a 1963 Cadillac Ambulance after an accident is unlikely.

The truth is, we get sick, accidents happen, emergencies are part of life, and we try to keep the thoughts of these realities out of our minds to the best of our abilities when they are not occurring to us and our loved ones. I'm okay with that.

I guess those unpleasant realities don't need to be denied any more than they should be a center of attention. They just are. You can worry about what might happen or dwell on what did happen, or you can look for the tail fins, siren light and gold stripes in life. 

I suspect that is probably a better way to live. 

Photo of my birth-year Caddie ambulance courtesy of Phil Pekarcik.