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 40^th 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.