Compact cars are proving they can be economical yet still have some pizzazz…The Internet article refers to them as “Sleek and Stylin’”---Today’s small cars are all about good design, great gas mileage and real value, the headline states---small cars don't have to be boring!

OK. But I’m watching for the Smart car.

No, I’m not referring to Intelligence! A while back a newspaper carried an article about a German car (written by Matthias Pfannmüller). Headlined “Fortwo Set to Come Across the Pond,” it read “When the Smart Fortwo arrives in the U.S. in early 2008, parent company DaimlerChrysler doesn't want to repeat past mistakes. The first Smart car hit the European market in 1998, but the brand has never been  profitable. With the new Fortwo, Smart is starting anew with a car tailor-made for the United States. Standard safety features include four airbags, ABS and stability control. The U.S. Fortwo will have increased cabin and trunk space and a new 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine making 84 bhp, mated to a refined semi-automatic transmission. Company executives claim the car will get about 40 mpg.”
I first saw the Smart car while visiting my son, Nolan, in Munich, Germany in the fall of 2000. I immediately had my husband Monte take a picture of Nolan and I beside the car, with the name “Smart” prominent in the photo.
I didn’t do it to brag about our “intelligence.” The photo was taken because we are descendents of the (New England) Smart family. I thought it was neat to have a car named after our ancestors!
I learned about the Smarts while pursuing my genealogy hobby. The most notable Smart was Captain Richard, who was the first privateer from Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the war of 1812. He took his boat, the Nancy, out only once. He returned with enough booty to build a home in Portsmouth that still exists today. It’s located behind the town’s hospital.
Both my late mother and my sister are named Nancy. I’m not sure if my grandmother chose that name because of the boat or not, but I’d like to think so.
Genealogy has taught me a lot about myself.
If anyone dares call me anything less than intelligent I have a response. They are wrong! After all, as a Smart descendent, how could I be considered unintelligent, regardless of the evidence?
I’ve also learned I’m eternally youthful---what else could I be, being a descendent of the Young family of Eastham, Massachusetts and Lamoine, Maine? I also follow my cardiologist’s advice---and should be in good shape---since I’m a Walker (Exeter and Lamoine, Maine and Alton, New Hampshire).
However, you might want to hide your axe when I visit you. I’m also a descendent of the Rhode Island Cornell family, as was Lizzie Borden. Yet the same family might confirm my intelligence quotient inherited from the Smarts---Ezra Cornell also descended from the same line, and he founded a university that’s the size of a small town today.
So I await the Smart car’s introduction in the United States. It’s a neat little scoot-around car, just big enough for the driver, one passenger and the groceries. Small enough to fit into tight parking places, it might even enable me to parallel park.
And if anyone were to accuse me of being precocious by advertising my intelligence, all I have to say is “I’m a descendent of the Smarts.”