No question about it, ol’ Lolly’s been around the block a time or two. And while she’s still in pretty good shape – nothing a little cosmetic work can’t fix – the old gal does have quite a few miles on her: 300,000 to be exact.
“Lolly” is a light blue 1990 Toyota Celica, whose owner, Betty Kaminer, will be joyously celebrating when, zero-by-slowly-creeping-zero, the odometer reaches the milestone digit sometime this week.
“It has the same engine and the same clutch,” said the obviously proud Kaminer. “Three sets of points have been put in and my husband (Dale) fixed the brakes. It turns 17 on May 4th and I celebrate every year. ... I’m kidding. ... But it’s had no major work. The air conditioner works and my husband does the oil changes on a regular basis.”
Kaminer, the office manager at Cardiovascular Institute in Orangeburg, says she bought the car brand new from the local Toyota dealer in 1990.
“The guy who sold it to me said he’d never sell me another car. He didn’t make any money off of it,” she said. “It’s the first new car I ever owned and I still have the sticker.”
A Bamberg native, Kaminer and her husband lived in Woodford until 2002, when they relocated to St. George to be closer to their grandchildren.
It was those two grandchildren, Kaminer explains, who named the car “Lolly.”
“When I drive in the garage and it drips water from the air conditioner, they tell me that Lolly’s crying,” she said. “Oh, don’t put any of that in there. They’ll send me to the psych unit.”
Kaminer admits that she is a wee bit particular about her prized vehicle.
“It’s never been wrecked. And I park it out by the road at the hospital. I park it way off,” she said. “When it was 250,000 miles, I pulled over and took a picture. ... It’s a good little car.”
With the odometer at 299,934 miles on Wednesday, Kaminer figures that Lolly’s next celebration will occur later this week. Driving it back and forth between St. George and Orangeburg, she averages about 80 miles a day, mostly on interstate highways.
If Lolly could talk, Kaminer concedes, she’d probably have a lot of stories to tell. However, Kaminer herself clams up, insisting that the one about the exploding biscuits is just not for publication.
As proud as Kaminer is, the story of Lolly was brought to light by her co-workers, Lyn Blanchard and Dianna Chavis. In fact, it took a bit of convincing even to persuade Kaminer that the request for an interview about her old car was a legitimate one.
So it’s Blanchard, who, with a lot of good-natured teasing and an obvious show of affection, concludes that “she has worked here at the Cardiovascular Institute for over 30 years. She’s loyal and dedicated to her car and to her job.”
T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by calling 803-533-5545.