The Rentals of Our Lives

Beating the hell out of a rental car is fun. Handbrake flip turns, transmission neutral dumps, curb hopping, hygiene abuse, all the things you’d never do to something you actually owned. And with current airport drop-offs, there’s no reason to speak with an agent. In other words, there’s no reason to lie to anyone’s face.

But that’s not the best thing about rental cars or trucks. What’s best is that we have good reasons to rent them.

While there are times when a car is rented purely to do something mundane, such as making plumbing supply sales calls in Ohio or attending the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Seattle, it’s at least as likely that the rental is for something awesome. Or at least a hinge moment in your life.

For me, one of those moments came in September when my daughter Nina moved into her first apartment about 130 miles away from us. That meant renting a U-Haul truck.

And it was so U-Haul. Good old DC 4959 F is a 2013 E-450 chassis with U-Haul’s proprietary 17-foot box bolted to it and an Arizona registration. Over 103,000 miles were showing on the odometer. It didn’t have so much as power windows, and the seats were covered in a vinyl that could withstand an artillery barrage. White and orange on the outside and gray duct tape on the inside.

How many times, over its eight years of rental service, has this truck helped move a daughter out of her parents’ house? How often has it lugged away the furniture belonging to a loved one who has passed away? Surely there must have been several times when it carried wedding decorations to a reception. And surely it has been enrolled to haul someone out of a failed marriage, a painful business dissolution, or a move across town to a bigger domicile after the arrival of a baby. Lots and lots of moments that mattered.