50 Shades of Gray | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I got your attention didn’t I? Well, if you are a major car enthusiast, I’m going to lose you very quickly. Why has the automobile industry cast this gloomy spell on our county – the multi-shades of gray cars? Why is it everywhere I look –whether in the WalMart parking lot, daily traffic, on the highways, in driveways, car lots, etc. we have become a sea of 50 Shades of Gray? Where is the color?

    Recently we acquired a new car (and we’ll be dead by the time we pay it off). My favorite car salesman asked “do you want to test drive the car?” So I go out the side door and there it is in all its glory – a silver car. After the test drive, I asked to drive another car. I thought he was playing a trick on me. There in its place was another silver toned car. Then I looked over the huge car lot and as far as I could see there were silver, white, dark gray, light gray, cream-colored – 50 Shades of Gray.

    Well, I’m getting used to my car little by little but I really miss my red car. It stood out loud and proud in the WalMart parking lot. It was rarely lost. Now I wander from row to row, keys in hand (that’s another thing - it is keyless), hoping when I press the keything that there is not another silver car next to mine with its owner pressing her keything at the same time. That’s a scary thought. Decision time, which car is mine?

    This afternoon I made a grocery trip to the nearest Food Lion and on the way I kept meeting myself coming and going. I quickly surveyed the parking lot trying to convince myself that it was just my imagination. The number of silver toned cars seemed to be multiplying like they were responding to a herding instinct. Of 35 cars 26 were gray/silver. Is this strange phenomena occurring only in Beaufort County?

    What a sight it must be for pilots flying over parking lots to look down at the tops of these colorless cars? In their imagination they might compare it to a very large field of mushrooms. Just think what else might go through their minds – igloos, large snowballs, etc. This is where you fill in the blanks.