Act One – The Red Robin
Metallic red with large doors for admission
Friendly and entertaining disposition
It wasn’t difficult to be a fan
Of this spacious, comfortable, minivan
Safety features were discreet
In-built infant safety seat
Airbags here and child locks there
Warning alerts if needing repair
But was this vehicle’s fine repute
And awesomeness beyond dispute?
Its owner John, was apt to expound
“The Chevy Venture, no better car to be found !”
The children had no cause for suspicion
Full entertainment, the Walt Disney Edition
The miniscule screen played a VHS tape
Their eyeballs locked in and their mouths agape
The Princess Bride often played on long trips
The driver John only knew of the scripts
In wind, in rain, T-storms and squalls
From Florida’s south to the Niagara Falls
Its detractors were sure that something would go wrong
But the earnest vehicle soldiered on
You’re surely on the road to perdition
After 80K you’ll need a new transmission
Buy a Merc, a Toyota , a Lexus a Honda
Modern production, steering won’t wander
It’s an old design, ponderous, heavy
Why would anyone buy a Chevy ?
But to its owner, a recent immigrant
This capable vehicle just seemed magnificent
Not flawed, or deficient, or some tired old Dobbin
A family treasure, our own “Red Robin”
Act Two – The Wilderness Years
Thrust onto the scene with virgin passion
The mini van ebbed from cutting edge fashion
The soccer mum transporter with built in TV
Bludgeoned aside by the SUV
De riguer no more and lacking persona
Needing a makeover like Shrek and Fiona
This was still the little engine that could
Whether shopping at CostCo or Home Depot for plywood
Symptomatic of this malaise
The new Chevy Venture, its final phase
Did reveal a model with identical clothes
Whose only difference was a re-designed nose
Act Three – Reprise & Farewell
Shrugging of its former chagrin
The humble mini van grew into its skin
Eschewing any ostentatious muscle
This was a vehicle that still knew how to hustle
With the gracious curves of Hundertwasser’s Vienna
The sublimely beautiful 2011 Sienna
Powerful, functional , reasonably priced
Mini vans reclaimed the car buying zeitgeist
Around the same time and with equal velocity
Honda remodelled their much admired Odyssey
New to the market, usurped by the best
Nissan designed the avant garde Quest
Sadly the automobile’s prophets of doom
Predicted the elephant NOT in the room
Among this new crop, this debutante bevy
Was absent a successor to the venerable Chevy
It may be nostalgia but my fondness keeps growing
For that lusty old girl whose transmission kept going
What she lacked in prestige, no neighborhood showpiece
She made up in memories, may she long rest in peace