You may have heard that I bought a Ferrari. If not, well, I BOUGHT A FERRARI! There. Now you've heard.
If you click through to the actual blog, you'll see my "About Me," which includes this: "Just a humble poker-playing doctor with a Ferrari fetish and too much time on his hands."
I'm not kidding about that Ferrari fetish. Let me tell you how it all began.
In the Beginning
Like many of these stories, it started with my dad. He had his own business for many years and worked really hard to provide for us. He also was a big fan of all things ritzy. We'd be driving and he'd spot an exotic car and point it out to me. His knowledge of specifics on the individual cars was impressive, made more so in retrospect because these were the days before the internet. I remember there was a time when he left his business to work for his friend Bob at a garage. He brought me down one time and was all excited to show me a Rolls Royce that they were working on. We must have opened a closed the doors a half dozen times just to get an idea of how well it was made and how perfectly the door closed and fit. It wasn't long before I started pointing out the exotics even before he saw them.
The Fateful Breakfast
I'm 16 years old and Dad has just hired me to work as his assistant. On my first day, we head off to start with a good breakfast at IHOP. There in the parking lot were two Maseratis. This was before Chrysler took over and ruined the brand. I believe they were Meraks, but I could be wrong. All I know for sure is that they were low and sleek and I wanted one badly.
The Poster
You remember the poster, don't you? I had one and it had the desired effect. Seriously.
The Plan
When most kids wanted to grow up to be firemen or policemen or astronauts, I just wanted to be a doctor. I've always had an innate desire to help people. But deep inside, I also knew that is was the surest and most reliable way to make enough money to get the things I wanted. And first on that list was the Ferrari. It's always been first. It was never about a big house, or jewelry or anything else, really.
The Italians
Many of you have already heard this story, but I'll tell it here again for posterity. In high school, I got a job a DaNino's Italian restaurant in Wappingers Falls, NY. They were all recent immigrants and spoke very little English. Instead of calling me Chuck, they called me Chako (you see where this is going, right?). One day, they asked if I intended to wash their dishes for the rest of my life. No, I said. I'm going to be a doctor one day. Well, they thought this was the funniest thing they ever heard. As a joke they started calling me Dr. Chako. As in, "Hey Dr. Chako. Go clean up the vomit be the cash register." I took it all in stride, but I also told them, "Just you wait. One day I'll come back here in a Ferrari with a personalized plate that says DRCHAKO." They just smiled at me and went about their business. It was a challenge.
Ferrari
And now it's here. A dream I had 30 years ago and a plan I put together over 25 years ago has finally come to fruition. I've heard that sometimes, when you build up something so big over so long, that there's a danger it might not live up to your expectations. That's a load of crap. This this is even better than I dreamed!
If you aren't already bored with my Ferrari ramblings, in future posts I want to tell you about my first real ride up through the hill country in Palo Alto, and I also want to revisit the other Ferraris I tried to buy that didn't quite make the cut. It was quite the learning experience.
16 comments:
I was going to ask when it was getting the license plate, and when were you driving it back to NY... but according to some comments here (http://te-in.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=47354553973&topic=6254), DaNino's is no longer. That is a shame.
Nice! Dreams come true baby! please post more pics!
After I quelled my near-instant jealousy, my honest thoughts were: "Congratulations, you deserve it. Any time someone can work hard enough to achieve a life-long dream, it's a very good thing."
Nice work Doc.
So, instead of Tod Styles and Buzz Murdock cruising Route 66, we can look forward to 13 episodes of Doc and his main squeeze tooling down California Highway 1?
OK, as long as the commercials aren't too long. But, could you work in a bit of Sex and the City?
I want to see the DRCHACKO vanity plate dude! Srsly!
The black is just Bangin'! Soooo HOT! Congrats to you man, although the work you put towards it and never losing sight of that dream is worth more than a million congratulations.
Gotta drive it back to PA for the next BASH!
Congrats on livin' the dream Doc!
As the "big brudder" in our wacky relationship, your success in this lifelong dream just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Besides the feelings that stir within you as you drive the treasured beast know this, Dad would be very, VERY proud of you!
:)
Love that wide smile, doubt its coming off anytime soon.
Congrats Doc!!
That's fuckin' awesome.
Riggs is so right, sometimes the ride getting there makes it all worth it.
Enjoy every mile!
Suggestion to others in the Chako household:
Learn to yell, "Shotgun!", loud and often.
Yup. It sur' is purtty.
Nice go-ing.
Damn -- the nuts!
sito si è impressionante e buona .try questo uno casinò online
No way Chuck! I had that exact same "Justification for Higher Education" picture. Mine had that year's cars, and little red lights that lit up when you plugged it in. I bought it about half way through college when I didn't think I was going to make it. Cost me almost $100 for that thing. I don't have it any more, but it was a huge motivator every time I looked at it on my wall. I'd plug it in at night and dream of the day when I had that kind of garage and a couple of exotics of my very own. I love my A4 convertible.
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