Candy Apple Red
After more than a year of deliberation and much researching,
I finally pulled the trigger. I traded
cars. I went back to an SUV, albeit a
smaller one. I now have a Toyota RAV4
and I really like it. One of my favorite
things about my new car is the color.
During the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, a time when I was in
high school in South Dakota, a popular color for a teenage boy to paint his car was Candy Apple Red. It was, in those days, “groovy”! It was also during this era that I met, fell
in love with and married my high school sweetheart. We’ve raised two great children, we now enjoy
two beautiful grandchildren, and this October we will celebrate our 40th
wedding anniversary. I’ve concluded that
it’s all because of the color, Candy Apple Red. I’m pretty certain Marsha might disagree with
me on that point.
So as I made my final decision on the car purchase, I had to
decide on a color. I went to the dealer’s
lot to look at their inventory of RAV 4’s and there it was - in all its splendor
- the most beautiful red RAV 4 I’d ever laid my eyes on. It wasn’t just any red, it was Candy Apple
Red. For the record, Toyota calls the
color barcelona red metallic. But I’m
having none of that, it’s Candy Apple Red and, as of last Friday, it’s all mine!
Many of you know that I’ve been an accountant for all of my
working life. It may seem rather strange
to you, that an accountant would choose red as his favorite color. After all, in the world of accounting, black
is the color of choice. Black represents
“profit” – e.g., “We had a good year, we finished in the black.” On the other hand, red is not so popular,
because red means “losses” or “deficits” – e.g., “This can’t go on, we can’t
keep operating in the red.”
So you’re probably expecting some sort of explanation for
this contradiction. All I can say is
that Candy Apple Red was my favorite color years before I ever gave thought of
pursuing accounting as my career. More
importantly, Candy Apple Red makes me happy remembering the ‘old days’ - some
of the very best years of my life. So it’s
okay for you to jab a little fun at me - the “red accountant”. I can take it! To me, Candy Apple Red is worth fighting
for.
