We had many friends in Mexico and Lou and Paula were some of our closest. When Lou retired, he and Paula had moved from the East Coast to her native Mexico and had a house built on what was then the outskirts of Mexico City. They were wonderful people and we often went to their house for parties and gatherings.
Prior to having the house built, they used the public bus system, as did everyone else. But as their house was now far from a bus stop, they decided it would be a good idea for Paula to learn to drive. This would enable them to pick up friends from various parts of the city and bring them to their home for the parties which they hosted almost every weekend.
To this end, a 1939 Packard was acquired for Paula to drive. Even though this was in the 1960's, what we now call "vintage" cars were common throughout Mexico. They had wonderful mechanics who could fix or make anything needed for these cars and this one was in first class shape. But it was HUGE! It was a TANK! A Hummer would have looked like a shrimp next to it.
Lou was teaching Paula how to drive as she made the rounds of friends to pick them up for the evening's activities. It was something exciting to see Paula, who was not even 5 feet tall, peering over the large steering wheel and directing this behemoth to the curb to pick us up. In we clambered and sat in the back seat with our other friends. It was almost like a limo! We could have just about seated a soccer team in the back!
One day, Lou and Paula came to pick us up. The small street we lived on connected to a large 4 lane boulevard and had a convenient stoplight where Paula could turn to head on to the next stop on the list. We got into the back seat and proceeded down the street to the large intersection. The light changed and Paula made a right turn on the the boulevard BUT she did not pull into the right lane! Instead, she swung all the way to the left side of the street facing the on-coming traffic! There were gasps from us in the back seat!
Lou, calmly said “Paula move to the right side of the road.”
Paula protested, “But this is MY side of the road! All those cars are on MY SIDE!”
Lou, again calmly said “Paula move to the right side of the road.”
Paula protested, “But this is MY side of the road! This is where I am and they should be the ones to move somewhere else!”
But she slowly swung the big car over to the right side of the road and everyone in the back seat heaved a big sigh of relief as we watched the barreling on-coming traffic miss us by just a few feet.
The party was a big success as it always was. But on that night, Paula described over and and over how all those cars were on “Her side of the road!”
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