Station Wagon

We had planned to keep our beloved 1997 station wagon. Then something happened. On the way home from picking up a small, new SUV, its air conditioning stopped. Its temperature soared and the needle on its temperature gauge flew past "H. " The towing company took it to our trusted, longtime mechanics, Tony and Steve, who said repairs would cost about $3,000. As much as we loved that little white wagon, we could not indulge in that repair after we had just bought a new car. On April 23, we bid the wagon adieu.

We had planned to keep our beloved 1997 station wagon. Then something happened. On the way home from picking up a small, new SUV, its air conditioning stopped. Its temperature soared and the needle on its temperature gauge flew past "H. " The towing company took it to our trusted, longtime mechanics, Tony and Steve, who said repairs would cost about $3,000. As much as we loved that little white wagon, we could not indulge in that repair after we had just bought a new car. On April 23, we bid the wagon adieu.

A New Windsor couple told state police that the rear side door window of their 1987 Ford station wagon was shot out while it was parked at their home Sunday night.Elvin and Jeanne Green of the 3300 block of Sams Creek Road discovered the damage about 7: 30 a.m. Monday.Police said the weapon used was a BB gun or pellet gun. They are investigating.FireHarney: Firefighters assisted Frederick County at 5: 33 p.m. Monday, responding for a brush fire on Harney Road. Units were out one hour.Pub Date: 7/24/96

Hannah accompanies Jessa to visit her father in upstate New York. The opening scene shows them waiting at a sparse train station to be picked up, Jessa looking like Anne of Green Gables clutching her carpet bag. Their dialogue as they wait for Jessa's dad is deliciously funny. Hannah has to pee but the station consists of only a platform. Jessa directs her towards some shrubbery to relieve herself. Hannah is aghast: "You want me to cross the tracks, and step on the third rail potentially.

"Twelve lunches to pack, 10 lunches to pack, eight lunches to pack. . . ." That is how I counted down the last days of the school year in June, days that felt like they, too, were jammed into a brown paper sack.The calendar was cluttered with year-end assemblies, meetings and recitals. The kids had lost their self-control as the hours of their confinement dwindled.And my throat was a little tighter every morning as I anticipated a summer of two-on-one. Them against me.If hell truly is a punishment of our own making, then I know what eternal damnation will be for me. Two kids in a car and a list of errands.

A collision in Edgewater Tuesday afternoon claimed the life of a 78-year-old man. Gene Herbert Byrd of the first block of Tarragon Lane in Edgewater died at Anne Arundel Medical Center within a few hours of the 2:53 p.m. crash at Solomons Island Road near Lee Airpark Drive, investigators said Wednesday. Byrd was making a left turn on the green signal from Lee Airpark Drive when his Volvo station wagon was struck on the driver's side door by a GMC Yukon traveling south on Solomons Island Road, Anne Arundel police said.

A fiery, late-night accident in Lutherville left a man dead after his Volvo station wagon left the road at high speed, crashed and burst into flames, Baltimore County police said Friday. The car was registered to a 45-year-old Phoenix man, but police were awaiting a positive identification of his remains from dental records that were being provided to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore. Lt. Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the Baltimore County police, said the 2007 Volvo XC70 was traveling rapidly northward on Dulaney Valley Road after midnight when it "failed to negotiate a curve" near Pot Spring Road and struck three boulders, a road sign and then a tree.

Iwent to parking court this week to battle for justice, to preserve my honor and to avoid coughing up $52. Rather than hiring a lawyer, I served as my own advocate. My courtroom performance did not go exactly as I planned. It's safe to say I represent no threat to the livelihood of lawyers. At issue was whether I parked too close to a fire hydrant at the corner of Park Avenue and Mosher Street, a few doors away from my home. The ticket placed on my station wagon said I had failed to give the hydrant at least 15 feet leeway.

Man dies after his car hits a guardrail on U.S. 29A 61-year-old Baltimore man died yesterday morning after his station wagon ran off a shoulder along U.S. 29 and struck a guardrail, Howard County police said.When police responded to the accident, they found Earl Phillip Holthaus of the 5200 block of Darien Road in East Baltimore, unconscious at the scene. He went into cardiac arrest and was taken to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.Police said it appeared that Mr. Holthaus had a heart problem that caused him to drive his Subaru station wagon off the highway near Old South Entrance Road at 7:30 a.m. yesterday.

A two-vehicle crash on the Baltimore Beltway that snarled traffic for nearly two hours yesterday might have been caused by a driver trying to commit suicide, Maryland State Police said. Samuel Krasin, 28, of Eastpoint pulled his 1995 GMC pickup truck to the shoulder of Interstate 695 near Harford Road about 1:20 p.m. to use his phone, said Sgt. Steve Seipp. A 1994 Ford station wagon hit his vehicle from behind, pushing the truck into the road, Seipp said. The station wagon driver, identified only as a 47-year-old Rossville man, told officers that he was trying to kill himself, police said.

A 22-year-old Glen Burnie man is in custody for allegedly strangling his 62-year-old great aunt to death Tuesday in the 300 block of Gatewater Court, police said. Brandon Zachary Duncan is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Dianna Lee Fitzwater. Duncan is under a guard's watch at a local hospital for unrelated issues, police said Thursday. Police responded to a call at 11:44 p.m. Tuesday and found Fitzwater's body. A witness at the house reported that she and Duncan woke around 11:30 p.m. and went to the living room, where they found the victim unresponsive.

A collision in Edgewater Tuesday afternoon claimed the life of a 78-year-old man. Gene Herbert Byrd of the first block of Tarragon Lane in Edgewater died at Anne Arundel Medical Center within a few hours of the 2:53 p.m. crash at Solomons Island Road near Lee Airpark Drive, investigators said Wednesday. Byrd was making a left turn on the green signal from Lee Airpark Drive when his Volvo station wagon was struck on the driver's side door by a GMC Yukon traveling south on Solomons Island Road, Anne Arundel police said.

An 82-year-old driver was killed after his vehicle collided with a delivery truck at an Essex intersection Tuesday afternoon. The elderly man was driving a Chevrolet station wagon south on Stemmers Run Road when police said a 51-year-old driver of a delivery box truck traveling west on Eastern Boulevard ran a red light, striking the station wagon about 2:30 p.m. Police said a Ford Focus traveling behind the station wagon was also involved in...

Thank you Michael Dresser for the stroll down Baltimore aviation's memory lane ("Airport born as Friendship marks 60 years," June 24). In the early 1960s a Sunday afternoon was extra special when my family would pile into the station wagon for a trip to Friendship. Standing on the paver-tiled observation deck I remember being thrilled at the very first plane I ever saw without propellers. I was in awe of the new-fangled jet airliners. These days while air travel has not only become de rigueur but also a major hassle, those field trips the to the airport remain a fond childhood memory.

A fiery, late-night accident in Lutherville left a man dead after his Volvo station wagon left the road at high speed, crashed and burst into flames, Baltimore County police said Friday. The car was registered to a 45-year-old Phoenix man, but police were awaiting a positive identification of his remains from dental records that were being provided to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore. Lt. Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the Baltimore County police, said the 2007 Volvo XC70 was traveling rapidly northward on Dulaney Valley Road after midnight when it "failed to negotiate a curve" near Pot Spring Road and struck three boulders, a road sign and then a tree.

Dixon expected to sign bill on live entertainment today Mayor Sheila Dixon is expected to sign today a measure expanding live entertainment at restaurants and taverns in the city, her spokesman, Scott Peterson, said Sunday night. The live-entertainment bill, which passed the City Council on Oct. 26, had been sought by bar owners across the city who are looking to boost business. But it has also stirred strong resistance among residents of Southeast Baltimore, Federal Hill and Hampden.

Baltimore City: Theft Man charged with stealing light pole A man spotted driving a station wagon on an East Baltimore street with a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. light pole sticking out of the windows has been arrested and charged with theft, city police said yesterday. Sgt. Ted Friel and Officers Keith Mobley and Ricardo Burrell were patrolling in the 200 block of N. Haven St. about 2:15 p.m. when they saw a 1988 Chevrolet station wagon with a nearly 30-foot-long aluminum pole protruding through front and rear windows.

A man who tried to rob a Mobil gas station yesterday morning was foiled when the attendant locked the outside cash drawer and sat on the floor until he left, county police said.The man walked up to the outside service window of the station in the 7900 block of Crain Highway shortly after 12:30 a.m. Holding his hand in his shirt as though he had a gun, the man ordered the attendant to put money through the cash window, police said.But the robber left without any money after the attendant locked the cash drawer and sat on the floor, police said.

Iwent to parking court this week to battle for justice, to preserve my honor and to avoid coughing up $52. Rather than hiring a lawyer, I served as my own advocate. My courtroom performance did not go exactly as I planned. It's safe to say I represent no threat to the livelihood of lawyers. At issue was whether I parked too close to a fire hydrant at the corner of Park Avenue and Mosher Street, a few doors away from my home. The ticket placed on my station wagon said I had failed to give the hydrant at least 15 feet leeway.

Tooling around the Beltway last Saturday, I had the strange sensation of being fashionable. I was driving a station wagon, the vehicle type that trend spotters say is making a comeback. At auto shows from Detroit to the one in Baltimore this weekend, wagons from BMW, Audi, Volvo, Subaru, Saab, Mercedes-Benz, Dodge and Chrysler have been drawing crowds. Automotive writers at Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Road & Track have recently penned pieces that proclaim, in the words of a Road & Track scribe, that "high-powered horsepower wagons are back and badder than ever."