One of the classic signs of being on the autism spectrum is fascination or even downright obsession with very narrow and specific topics. Sometimes it’s just the initial exposure to something interesting that triggers an obsession. Some of these obsessions may be completely off the wall, but others may be things that trigger the interest of any kid, though often at a much deeper level.
In the late 1980s, my family’s Ford Falcon station wagon was showing its age and it came time to sell it and get something that was a bit more modern and less rusty. The end result was a bright red 1980 Honda Accord sedan, and I still remember the day my mother and I took the train to a dealership in the Hutt Valley to buy it and then drive it to the therapy sessions I was having at the time. Strangely enough, especially for a four-year-old on the spectrum, for some time after that I did wonder if the salesman was going to miss “his” car after we drove it away. The car was equipped with everything a growing family needed – central locking, a tape deck for listening to Dire Straits, and ash trays for every seat – perfect for kids who fortunately did not smoke but still had candy wrappers that needed to be stashed away.
Being used to transport kids from place to place, the car would often get quite dirty, and while keeping the interior clean was often a challenge, keeping the exterior clean was an easier job – normally, we would just wash the car in the driveway with the garden hose and a bucket of soapy water, although when the kids were helping, it often required much more soap and water than normal and sometimes more time too. The same goes for self-serve car-washes, though the result is often includes a small fortune in quarters going down the drain.
The alternative, of course, is to get to an automatic car wash. My first experience was at a small fuel station outside of the town of Tawa. Going through a car wash is quite a sensory experience and can even be scary, especially for younger kids, but I was just more curious than anything – were those brightly coloured spinning brushes scratching my mother’s new car? The mitter curtains were also quite fascinating. After the whole ordeal, I though that going through the car-wash was one of the greatest things ever.
My next task: Go home, take out my Lego and build one of my own. It was fairly basic but I then realized the existence of set 6934, which included a car wash, but it was quite expensive. Further disappointment came on the day that Dad promised me that we would go through the car wash on the way home after picking up some beer, but the long line at the liquor store meant that it would be closed by the time we got there.
As with other childhood interests, my interest in car-washes faded over time, but never went away completely. Even today, there is a self-service car-wash near where I work, and it is equipped with two “bay” washes – one with conventional spinning brushes and the other “touch-free”. In addition multiple “tunnel” car-washes have started to pop up around town, and those provided their own unique experience.
Finally, although I was never able to get Lego #6934 with its car wash, I still have an opportunity to get a Lego car-wash – the company still has such sets, including 60362 to fulfill my AFOL desires