I was driving up the A449 from Newport to Usk when Daisy said to me, “Listen Dad, I don’t identity with being yellow anymore, and I don’t like being called Daisy. From now on, I’d like to be called Scarlett.”
“I respect your decision,” I replied. “Scarlett it is.”
I’m a liberal-minded person and I’m always open to different ways of thinking. Just because I may not understand a concept, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be prepared to accept a perspective that is foreign to me. It’s important to embrace the ways of others, and just because my bright yellow Nissan Juke no longer wishes to be labelled as yellow, who am I to question her?
Nonetheless, to the untrained eye, Scarlett appears to everyone else as being yellow. It is the others, of course, who are misguided. Although she appears to be yellow on the outside, it doesn’t mean that she is on the inside. It’s just paint that was sprayed on her in the Nissan factory where she was assembled, and you can’t judge a Juke by its colour.
My bright yellow Juke isn’t especially my choice of car colour. I’d rather be a little more inconspicuous on the road. It’s as if everyone knows where I am. I don’t need to keep secrets as to my whereabouts, but I don’t need to publicise them either. My ex-wife chose it five weeks before I left, and I was stuck with it (don’t tell Scarlett I said this or her ego will be deflated). She puffs her chest out with pride when I discuss with people the places she’s taken me. It was around four years after my great escape that I met Melanie. We have become almost inseparable and have travelled extensively around the UK. Scarlett is particularly proud of taking us around Scotland’s North Coast 500. She wears her NC500 badge on her windscreen and likes to point it out to anyone who she thinks may be interested. There are probably not many bright yellow Nissan Jukes who have accomplished the entirety of Scotland’s version of Route 66.
The best thing about driving Scarlett is that all the other yellow Nissan Juke owners like to wave to each other. Only a week or so ago, Melanie and I pulled up alongside one while waiting at a set of traffic lights in Newport. We wound our windows down and chatted briefly with the other driver and passenger, sharing a solidarity and team spirit that only yellow Juke owners understand. This kind of situation has arisen on many occasions.
Parking next to each other in car parks is always fun. If I ever see one in a supermarket, for example, I always park next to it. I rarely get to see its owner as they have invariably left before I get back, but it’s great company for Scarlett while I’m traipsing round the aisles.
My daily commute to Abergavenny where I work is a source of excitement for us both. At around about 7.45am northbound on the A4042, on most working days, we see another yellow Juke coming towards us. This one is easily recognisable as it is the only one we have seen that has red door mirrors. Its driver, a woman, always waves at us. Scarlett flashes her lights with an uncontrollable enthusiasm, as does the other car, while its driver and I wave frantically to each other. We look forward to it every day we go into work. Part of me thinks that it would be wonderful to meet this mysterious woman and have a conversation about our wonderful cars, but part of me thinks that maybe it would spoil the fun. I think that probably we should just keep things as they are. I know that they live less than half a mile from where I work, as one day when I was a little early she was emerging from a cul-de-sac just before I turn right towards my office. I’m a great believer in protecting people’s personal space. It’s just a bit of fun that helps our daily commute and needs to be left as such. However, if one of us changes our car, our connection would be lost forever.
I often wonder if there are any other drivers who have similar experiences. I’m sure this isn’t just yellow Nissan Juke drivers. I’d be interested to find out.
For now, I shall be keeping Scarlett. She is a lovely, comfortable and easy car to drive. Great for journeys long and short. She has covered almost 100,000 miles in her six years (she was a year old when I bought her with a very low mileage). She is looking forward to a road trip around France in the summer. She has already been using Duolingo to help her learn a bit of French. I wonder how many yellow Nissan Jukes there are over there. I like to get the most out my cars before selling them on. I’ve never become attached to a car before, but Scarlett has been a bit of fun and helped me through the toughest period in my life. She has always been a conversation starter. Someone once told me that her colour matches my personality. I’m fairly sure it was a compliment.
I’ve also discovered another advantage of driving her. She is very useful if I want to park on double yellow lines. Because of her colour, she is totally camouflaged, the traffic wardens are unable to see her, so I never get a parking ticket.
Thank you Scarlett.
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MARK D PRITCHARD writes... 