Get the RED out: Don’t rub your eyes — It’s not Tommy Trojan’s — It’s just the pride and joy of a normal guy who likes to go Redding Out To The Highway
I don’t like red. I almost never WEAR red, and I don’t buy red cars. In fact, when the Angels switched their team color to red, the jerseys I had to have (in order to be a true and supportive fan) ruined the mostly-blue wave of hues in my closet. The 2002 World Series Championship forced me to show my pride by donning the red shirts for a while, but that was 8 years ago, and the red-dye of those tee’s has since faded away (like the Angels recently), occasionally ruining the other clothes in the washer.
But yesterday, I saw some red that I wanted to share with all of you. This vehicle is a one-of-a-kind, and believe it or not, Charley, the Owner and designer of the reddest car in the world, is a normal guy, who is actually married! I expected him to be a freak, who would be unable to carry on a mature conversation. NOT THE CASE AT ALL.
Charley is a local guy, who has been gainfully employed in the Grocery/Deli biz for decades, has been married to the same women for years and years, and is intelligent enough to eloquently explain the rationale behind his remarkable vehicle. It started with red REFLECTORS all over the car, and grew from there. Charley is just a friendly, social guy, who loves the attention, loves to turn heads, loves to make people smile, and, obviously, loves red. He actually spray-painted all the Jack-in-the-Box antenna balls red before attaching them to the car. There is no specific meaning to all the different things glued on — except to make it look more RED, and more outlandish.
Are you wondering if he ever gets stopped by the Cops? That was my first question for him. He says that he has been stopped only twice, and not because of his limited ability to SEE out of the car, but because they thought that all the reflectors might be a distraction to other drivers. Both times, after talking to him and finding out that he is a relatively normal guy and a responsible citizen, they decided to cancel the Red Alert, and NOT to write him up.
Charley not only decorated the outside of the car, but he has also made the interior a fuzzy red shrine to the color red. It is so stuffed with red stuff, that there is no longer room for any passengers. But that’s fine with his wife, because she doesn’t want to ride in it anyway. It seems that she is not crazy about the whole thing, but she’s an extremely tolerant woman. Just not The Woman in Red. Of course, his wife not being on board does nothing to curb his enthusiasm, so if you ever happen to pull up to Charley at a Red light, be sure to give him and his Red Badge of Courage a wave and a smile… even if you’re a True Blue Bruin, who’d rather be dead than Red.
