Please Don't Change My World

I remember the old dark green two-door (the doors were very wide) ‘77 Olds Cutlass Supreme Brougham I used to own. It was my first car. (I found this picture on the web. It sure brought back memories. I don't know how long the URL will be good until it gets sold by the owner. For more views, click here.) It was a “boat.” My dad insisted that we (meaning all of us kids) were going to have a heavy car for “safer” winter driving. My sister named her car “Sherman’s Tank.” I don’t remember what I named my Cutlass. It had about 80,000 miles on it already. It had rear-wheel drive. The automatic shift was right by the steering wheel. When I bought my next car, it was the kind that had the automatic shift on the floor, in the same area a standard shift would be. It must have taken me about two weeks to get used to putting my hands on the shift between the bucket seats without grasping for “air” because the shift wasn’t on the steering wheel.

What is it with car manufacturers? Isn't the sales pitch, "Location, location, location!"? Different models have different places for the door handles. I like consistency. I want uniformity. I don’t like it when things are moved around. I may stumble or fumble a bit. The interior design of the dashboard have diverse placement of buttons that is used to turn on/off the rear defrost or air conditioner. I am sure those who buy newer cars every four years know what I am talking about. You want to turn on the heater, then you realize that it's in a different spot.

I rode in a taxi the other day and felt like I made a fool of myself because the door handle was not in the place I thought it was. It was not the same make as our car. The handle was farther away than ours was. It was “fun” to fumble around and have one of those “blonde” moments.

I don’t think that this is really a “blind” thing. I didn’t even look at the door. I handed the driver the fare and just automatically put my hand on the door, only to find out that the handle was in a different place.

People can get disoriented and have to get used to changes (like when furniture is rearranged in the living room or bedroom). You make a trip in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and bang into an end table, because you forgot it was moved.

When I was in my twenties, I liked to move furniture around. I got bored having the furniture in the same place longer than three months. Now I don’t really like to have it moved. I am glad that my husband doesn't want it moved often. I know that it’s much better for the carpet, though.

But I guess when you are visually challenged, you want things to be standard. You want it to be the same. It’s just a "comfort" thing.