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| [Editor’s Note: Both Ed & I were born the year of this pickup – him on today’s date, me 5 days later] |
People are a lot like cars. When new, they all (except for a few lemons now and then) run great, look great, and are able to fly down the road.
Not all cars are equal, however. Some have parts that wear out before others. Some are driven too hard and just can’t endure the strain; they end up in the junkyard before their time. Others are cared for and pampered, but still break down.
Then there are ones that are driven hard, left out in the weather, cared for and maintained only when needed, but keep on running every day. Somehow, against all the odds, they have lived long enough to be called classics. They continue to run with their parts old and worn. But now that burst of speed they had when they were new could break something unrepairable.
Myself, I am lucky: I am able to cruise at the speed limit. Still, you may give an old car the best care in the world – the best oil and gas, a loving mechanic to watch over it day and night – and sooner or later it will stop running. You can’t drive a classic like a new car and it not break down on you. Its old parts will just give out.
Nevertheless, a classic can still look good going down the road. It doesn’t have to prove anything. After all, it is a classic.
| Copyright © 2022 by Ed Rogers |
Ed, given that my "new" car is a 20-year-old Benz, your stunning bit of prose is spot on with me. The Benz is, however, an exception to your rule of "classics" needing gentle care: it can hit 200mph and could probably hold 150mph from Virginia to California...if not for minor inconveniences such as cops, traffic, traffic lights, etc.
ReplyDeleteComparing classic cars to classic people, the Benz is the hero I try to model myself on. My drop back second choice is my 410,000 mile, 40-year-old Volvo 242: not as fast or classy as the Benz, but just as reliable. And maybe even tougher: it has been "assaulted" twice on the highway, left both its "attackers" disabled or dead in the road, and both times it drove away under its own power.
Some gentle care for the aged is a greatly appreciated and very nice gesture, I guess (I especially appreciate my wife's valiant efforts to save wear and tear on my helicopter-mishap injured lower back), but at this stage I feel we are probably better served by others getting the hell out of the way (except for my wife) and letting us do what we know we need to do. When you wake up, get up. When you get up, do something. When you get too tired to do something, take a break. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
The more you do, the longer you can do it. The less you do, the quicker you can do less. Some people call it monotony; I call it momentum. And momentum rules...for classic people and classic cars.
Not unlike the human body, metal has limitations also. It's called metal fatigue. While a human body running full out for a long time may survive, it has placed stress on parts of the body that cannot heal and one day will give out. In humans, the damage is done to the feet, the knees, the hips, the back, and even the heart. This also happens with metal; a car depends on every part of the engine working properly—one bolt or screw gives out and the engine can be destroyed. Such small things, yet they keep everything working properly. I, like you, can't count the number of times I should have died and didn't. That doesn't mean that the next stupid thing I do won't kill me, anymore than there is a guarantee the next time you run your Benz up to over 100 mph the engine won't fly apart. After all, we know, or should know, that nature will not be denied and all things come to an end. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy it while you can, but don't be sad when one day you wake up and find that what took you a couple of hours to do a year ago now takes half a day. I remember when I was 69, I felt like I was 40; by the time I reached 74, I felt like I was 74. Time is not our friend.
DeleteHappy New Year, "Live long and prosper," or at least "Don't worry—be happy."
Moristotle,
ReplyDeleteThat is a wonderful graphic you chose to illustrate Ed's article. I showed the image to my seven-year-old son and he said "wow, what a great old Ford truck! I bet that's about a 1950 model." Do you happen to know if that truck is indeed a 1950ish model?
Ed identified it as a 1943, and, motomynd, you know that Ed is now 79 years old, so you could have put the photo’s caption together with that fact and assured your son the Ford was older than he guessed!
DeleteHere is the link to the truck Paul.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pinterest.com/pin/56717276528509454/
My son, detailed gearhead that he is, challenges the idea the truck is a 1943 model. He points out that on a '43 the grille slats are vertical, not horizontal (like the truck in the image) and the headlights are set into the fenders of a '43, rather than the grille. If you can convince him that he is wrong, I will congratulate you in advance; I seldom have such luck myself.
ReplyDeleteEd, I take motomynd’s comment as a challenge to YOU. Maybe you can contact the guy identified as the photo’s source by Pinterest.
DeleteI confess, though, that if moto’s prodigious son is wrong, I will be much surprised.
If only I could find an emoji that shows a scowling blonde boy with arms crossed, saying "these people actually believe what they read on Pinterest?"
ReplyDeleteYour photo seems to be mislabeled. My son went to one of his favorite websites -- www.ClasssicCars.com -- and found an actual 1943 Ford pickup for sale, and a 1950. Vertical grille on the '43, horizontal grille on the '50. Ford apparently went to the horizontal grille @ 1948.
The red truck in your image looks very, very nice, as it should, for it is years younger than you two.
motomynd, I guess, now that not only my contributing editor Ed Rogers but also his managing editor (namely me) have been revealed as fact-fraudsters by a boy, I’m going to have to get a professional fact checker on the staff. Would your son be willing to serve in this position?
DeleteBeing a true Gen Alpha, my sone of course has a very limited attention span and is inclined to focus only on topics of great interest...to himself. If you have any questions relating to anything automotive, he might well be an excellent fact checker. Beyond that, no promises. Blame it on him having the same birth date as the legendary Carroll Shelby, possessor of the ultimate one-track car mind.
ReplyDeleteI will take his word for the date, although, the owner may have custom built the truck and if so it would no longer be called a 1943. When I got out of the army I bought a 1938 Chevy Coup from a junkyard for a $125. Everything worked on it including the radio. I sold it for a $150 and went to France for a year. I think a lot about that Coup.
ReplyDelete