Tunes on 2s - Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar (1980)

Tunes on 2s returns! Just in time for the spring season…

Well you're the real tough cookie with the long history
Of breaking little hearts, like the one in me
That's O.K., lets see how you do it
Put up your dukes, lets get down to it
Hit me with your best shot
Why don't you hit me with your best shot...

Listen/watch here

My very first car was a trusty little used Plymouth Reliant K that I believe was acquired during my sophomore year of college (1995). It was a boxy little maroon/dark red; my friends dubbed it “The Little Red Box.”

The Friday before Easter 1999 (10 years ago?!) I was driving the K-car along a stretch of Interstate 80 between Iowa City and Des Moines, headed to my parents’ house. I was grooving along quite nicely, enjoying the drive. I turned up the radio, hearing the opening strains of a good song. I was just starting to sing along when I saw something in the middle of the road up ahead. It was coming up fast, some chunk of metal, and I had ditch on the left side, another car on the right, and no time to slow down. I swerved and braked as much as possible and CLUNK …I bounced but was still on the road, but was rapidly losing power… the speedometer was going off the charts as I pushed on the gas, but the car wasn’t going anywhere. Unsure of what to do, car slowly coasting along, I noticed the radio was still blasting that tune I was so eager to sing – “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” How ironic.

I was luckily near an exit, so I coasted through and turned into an antique mall. This was pre-cell phone, so I went in and called the person who would know exactly what to do - my dad. I explain the situation, in tears of course, and he instructed me to get towed to Newton, get the car in the shop and call him back when I knew what was wrong with it. Turns out the “clunk” took out a corner of the transmission. Translation – would cost more to fix than the car was worth. Upon sharing this news with dear old Dad, he offered to drive down with a trailer and pull me and the car back to Storm Lake the following day, and he’d see what he could do to patch it up.

I spent the night in a Super 8 motel room that had recently been painted - likely a few of my brain cells were lost due to those fumes. Dad arrived as promised and after inspection of the car and a call to the State Patrol, we determined that what I hit had likely been a drive shaft that was dropped from a large truck or semi.

We picked up the car and hauled it home, and the transmission was able to be patched…but the car was not up for out-of-town driving. My first car was lost to me forever. Such a good little car – no problems with it whatsoever, and then I had to go and take out her transmission.

Apparently car karma was not done with me. I was given my mom’s car to drive back to Iowa City, and as I pulled into town, at a stoplight about 1 mile from my apartment, the fuel pump went out.

Thus began a long string of car issues that shall be reserved for another post (anyone remember the next car, the Dodge Spirit, aka “Christine?”)…but it all started, appropriately, with “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

Author's note: On a completely unrelated topic, I can totally rock this song on Guitar Hero.