Pink Cadillac

Here I am driving my pink Cadillac with the crushed velvet seats, riding in the front, oozing down the street, waving to the girls, feeling out of sight and spending all my money on a Saturday night.

Okay, that wasn’t me. That was a Bruce Springsteen song from 1984. I was busy having a baby in 1984, so no pink Cadillacs for me.

But this particular pink Cadillac--the one I’m driving in the photo--it came from the documentary film, The Story of Mothers and Daughters. I’ve always had a lot of good mother-daughter stories to tell. (That’s my daughter in the passenger seat, by the way). I told Gary Weimberg, the film’s director about how when I was a little girl, my mother and I used to drive around the country roads in Westport, Connecticut looking for Paul Newman. Growing up, everyone in our town knew the stories--how Paul used to drive around in his 1963 Volkswagen Beetle--tricked out with a V8 engine so he could easily escape adoring fans--that would be me and my mother.

For a short time, my mother really did own a pink Cadillac. She bought it from the local garage for one hundred dollars. It was old and needed work, but no matter. My intrepid mother drove us from Norwalk to Trumbull to the Read’s Department Store, where it basically exploded in the parking lot.

We got home unscathed, lived to tell the tale and years later my daughter and I ended up in a movie--me playing myself and my daughter playing me—driving around looking for Paul Newman in a pink Cadillac.

Creative Friends--The key to cooking up a good story is to pay attention. Collect what feels meaningful to you, then add some detours, some creative bits. You don’t have to know exactly where you’re heading—not at first anyway. Let some time pass and allow yourself to be surprised.

And when the time is right then go ahead and share.

Love,

Jamie