Hmmm... That New Car Smell

Mark and I jumped in the PT Cruiser last evening for a quick trip to the store. As soon as I got in the car I knew something was wrong.

"What the hell is that smell?"

"I don't know, I smelled it earlier today."

"It smells like an old used Band-Aid."

It was really strong, so when we got home I opened up all the doors, and shined a flashlight into every crevice and corner of the car. Nothing, I couldn't find a thing. If we can't find the source of the odor, and a thorough squirting of Fabreze® doesn't fix the problem, we may have to trade the car in.

Many years ago I lived on a hippie commune in Iowa. To supplement our food supply we would occasionally go fishing in the rivers around our hippie farm. It was a nice deal, nights smoking pot and playing rock and roll music, days smoking pot and going fishing. One day we drove to a favorite fishing spot in my 1964 Rambler station wagon, stopping on the way to buy a tub of night crawlers. I remember it being a particularly bad fishing day, all we caught were a couple of carp. Not good to eat at all, lots of bones and the taste of the river bottom. Later that same day my cousin from Chicago stopped by on his way to California and invited me to go along for the ride. A road trip to California was never turned down back in those days, so I jumped in his car and off we went for two weeks. It gets hot in Iowa in the summer. Hot and humid. When my cousin dropped me off on his way back from California I walked over to my Rambler station wagon to make sure it would start after sitting for two weeks. I opened the door. I was sure that there was a dead human inside that car. The stench that came blowing out of the car and into my face nearly knocked me out. It was the most awful thing I have ever smelled, still to this day. It turned out that I had forgot to take the tub of night crawler worms out of the car after our fishing trip two weeks earlier. I don't know why I did it, but I opened the tub. Inside everything had melted into a disgusting, smelly blob. I tried cleaning out that car, I tried airing it out, washing the inside, and dousing it in air freshener. Nothing would get the smell of death out of that car. I tried selling it, but the minute I opened the door the sale was off. I had no choice, I took it to the junk yard. The junk yard wouldn't take it, something about it possibly being involved in a crime. So I removed the tags, removed the serial number, and dumped it on the street next to the junk yard. I certainly hope that I can find the source of the PT Cruiser's odor. I'd hate to have to dump it after all these years.