BEHOLD, THE CAR WASH

We are lucky enough to go to an autistic charter school in our area. (More on that here.) It is the best! Kids on the spectrum travel from miles around to attend, often in carpools. We carpool with one boy, and it took Jack quite a while to warm up to the presence of someone different in our car. I picked up on that quickly with his yelling, “get out, get out, no no no!” for the first few weeks. Many days when I pick them up after school we spend a few minutes fighting over one specific seat (of the 5 empty ones!) that they have deemed as the favorite. I try to keep it fair by switching off and then I have to physically pull one boy off the other, lug one to the ‘lesser’ seat, and wrestle the seat belt on. These boys do not back down easily and the boy who ‘lost’ the seat can hold a grudge the whole way home.

Wow, what an adventure to spend some time with these boys, together. When they are happy they yell about the train! seeing the school first! passing a big truck on the freeway! And oh, do they love to put the windows up and down and up and down, and mostly down (even in frozen January).

Despite any fighting or distractions, the one thing that brings everyone together, even my 2 year old: THE CAR WASH.

5 year old Jack in the glorious car wash

We pass 2 car washes on the way to school, and then (unfortunately) pass them again on the way home. As soon as they come into view, they erupt into: “there’s the car wash!” “we do car wash!” “CAR WASH CAR WASH CAR WASH!” “stop, stop there goes the car wash!!” “STOP! You’re passing it!” Every driving day, 4 times a day. Occasionally, if I can see we have perfect timing, we drive through the wash’s parking lot. We will park and WATCH a lucky stranger’s car get washed. We cheer when the brushes whirl. We cheer when the car exits with the fans blowing loudly. It’s amazing. And then they complain even more because they were just within reach of sensory bliss and I drove away.

Then there are those glorious days when the van truly IS dirty and a car wash seems appropriate. So when they ask, I love to say, “YES! What a great idea, let’s do a car wash!!” Hooray! It is the most exciting event ever (even for me!) Arm flapping galore. You think there’s a lot swirling around in a car wash? Add in an autistic carpool and the whirls are as tangible inside the car as out: anticipation, hating/loving the darkness, the scary/fascinating flashing lights, the harsh/stimulating loud noises–holy sensory overload!. There’s a mix of fear, exhilaration, and lots of pretend screaming. Then it’s over faster than a roller coaster ride. We drive out and they tell me how many car washes we are up to now. Want to know how many we’ve done so far this school year? 16. (I think this includes how many they’ve also coaxed the other driver to do–sorry to them, I think Jack started the car wash craze for everyone…)

>>TERRIBLY IMPORTANT (to them) UPDATE NEWS FLASH: They finished the year out with a last day of school car wash, bringing the total up to 17<<

You better believe I have taken a great many entertaining car wash videos of my group. For your viewing pleasure, I present “Jack vs the Car Wash”. Kinda makes you want to run out and take an autistic carpool through a car wash, doesn’t it?