December Daily Writing Project: December 8

December 8-

Your most memorable experience in the back of a car.

            “Wait- you don’t know about The Emoclew?” he said.
            “The what?” I said.

            “The Emoc- ok we gotta go right now,” he said.

            “Eh?” someone else offered.
            “Yeah, Alex hasn’t seen The Emoclew, so we’re gonna head over there,” he said.

            “To The Emoclew!” they cheered.

            It was a warm December evening in south Florida, and I was in 10^th grade.  I was hanging with a fantastic crew; at the time, probably most easily known as ‘the ska crew’.  Goofy, smart, animated, and usually substance-free, I liked these guys and girls a lot.  One evening, we were hanging in a gas station parking lot, and the above conversation occurred.  Everyone packed into the 2 cars and we were on our way.  I was crammed in an overstuffed backseat.  But even from the backseat, driving at night in south Florida is pretty great.  Add to the evening some good friends, and it didn’t really matter where we were going- I was just happy to be there.

            We had only been driving for 10minutes and I still knew exactly where we were when the cars began to slow down to turn.  We were turning into the public Christmas lights ‘drive-thru’ event on part of FAU’s campus on Glades Road!  I had passed this event many times over the past few weeks, but hadn’t thought I’d ever actually drive through it.

            “We’re going to the Christmas lights drive-thru thing?”
            “Yes!  That’s where The Emoclew lives!”

            The event was free to the public and as soon as we entered, we were greeted by a row of lit-up candy canes and a large lit-up welcome sign with a waving snowman.  Our speed had slowed to under 5mph and we began through the Christmas light village from the top of the teardrop-shape pathway.  From the backseat I craned my neck and adjusted my posture to see everything out there, wondering when I would finally understand what this mysterious ‘Emoclew’ was.  Before too long though, we had slowly driven most of the way around the event and I started to wonder if this was all just a big prank.  But just before we fully exited the event, everyone in the cars erupted.

            “THE EMOCLEW!!”

            “What?!  Where?  What are you looking at?”

            And someone pointed at the snowman that had earlier greeted us on the way in.  Coming from the opposite direction and reading the sign backwards, I could see that the lights underneath the snowman now spelled out the word ‘E-M-O-C-L-E-W’.  My fellow car mates cheered and exalted for The Emoclew like fans at a rock concert.  I, myself, couldn’t help but feel a new sense of pride for being in the presence of this Great Emoclew.   And as we slowly drove past our Christmas light hero and exited the event, everyone’s ecstasy faded into a peaceful joy, happy that we all got our money’s worth.

*Obviously the “most memorable” backseat experiences involve either a girlfriend or a police officer, but I like my Emoclew experience/story much better.