Endure

I seem to be pretty despicable because I have one millions things to blog about (my new hamster named Lawrence [the cutest hamster in all the land], my new garden, my new internship) but I haven't. Instead, I'm going to write about T-shirts.

The supervising computer for my work just got the Adobe Suite installed on it, and I have been going crazy with it. I volunteered to design our office t-shirt, and from there I have made two other t-shirts: one for my boss who does a "cousin camp" for her little grandchildren, and the other for our Wilkinson Family Reunion. I had a lot of fun with them, and think I could probably make a cottage business for camp shirts...but don't worry, I won't.




Here is the BYU Info Shirt. It is views of the front and back respectivly.




Here is the one for my boss. She wanted a simple design for a kids camp.




Here is the Wilkinson Family Reunion shirt. It depicts the greatest of all Wilkinson legends: THE VEGA. For those of you who don't know, the Vega was manufactured by Chevrolet 1970-1977. It had an unusual aluminum-block engine, that had some serious problems, most notably, the valve stem cells would split or crack, leaking oil into the combustion chamber. Basically, you could only go about 200 miles on one quart of oil. We had a Vega when I was growing up, and it was a very uncomfortable, and somewhat unreliable car. But it was the best car.

Some of my memories include: going around corners and the passenger door flying open; wanting to go to the park, but unable to because the door wouldn't open at all (even though it was unlocked); five to ten minute wrestles to get the car in reverse; the hump where the middle seat should have been; looking at the ceiling, which was like one of those 3D puzzles that pop out if you cross your eyes; and always leaving puddles of bright green antifreeze where ever we went (when the car was turned off it would promptly dump all of its vital fluids on the ground).

The reason we revere the Vega is because of its drive to go on. It seemed to serve us when we needed it the most, and wouldn't give up on us even when we retired it (at the dump). In the end, my dad called dumps to see what he could get for the car, and one dump even said in a disgusted voice, "We don't take Vegas." When he found someone who would take it, he left it running on their scales (so it wouldn't leak all over the scales), but it also seemed fitting. The car that never died.

As a result, in our family when we say "Be a VEGA" what we really mean is "Endure to the end." I thought it would only be natural to draw an homage to the Vega for our family reunion, to remind us to stick it through the tough times, and to always park so we can pull forward, in case you can't go into reverse later.