Tire Tracks Back.
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| photo source: LA Times Sometimes those tire tracks don't lead anywhere you really want to go! |
Back in January I mentioned this book by Thomas Murray and said that it was still worth a read.
I just finished re-reading the book. It is a pleasant enough collection of stories, but it is more about nostalgia, than about the cars themselves.
It's actually very heavily into nostalgia. It is nostalgia for a very specific time period, more so than for any specific car.
The book was probably received the warmest by people that are a part of Murray's generation. The generation that "Came of Age" with the beginning of the Second World War.
It is a paean to a simpler, more innocent time in America. Especially when viewed retrospectively. It was actually a very challenging, very frightening, period of insecurity for all that lived through it.
Memories are Mr. Murray's stock in trade.
In one story about the reintroduction of a new replica Piper Cub private aircraft, he discusses the difference between an original item and a replica. The Cub is an airplane that has a warm spot in many pilot's memories. When he learns that the Cub is going to be reintroduced as a replica of the original plane, he is initially quite excited. Maybe he would even consider buying one for himself.
Perhaps he could rediscover the pleasures of how he learned to fly behind the controls of a Cub. He gives it some serious thought. But then he considers how a replica is only the illusion of something that existed in the Past. He asserts that only an original item can take you back, because it has already been there. It already knows the way.
As you stand by an antique car at a show, you might see visions of the past reflected in the chrome. Ghosts from your own past that want to draw near and gather around the car. The ghosts are not only of people from your Past, that have already died, but also of the living. The memories of the times that they shared with you.
The need to reconnect to our past is almost universal and very strong. It's one way that we try to make sense of the events in our lives.
In our memory, the friends of our youth, the boys and girls of our childhoods, remain as young as they were, back then.
Murray even states that he doesn't want the reality of the present to intrude upon the reminiscences of the past. That girl that you knew as a 17 year old in high school might still be around, but you don't want to think of her as being as old as you are,- now. There's not a lot of magic about that!
He relates how the desire to re-experience the past can become so strong that it can influence behavior in the present. A common theme in some of his stories concerns a middle aged man that will revisit the hometown that he left decades ago, and try to reconnect with an old flame. The one that got away.
He finds her telephone number and arranges a meeting at a local eatery, she tells him she'll be wearing a red silk scarf. He eagerly enters the restaurant and observes that the only women wearing a red scarf is a chubby little older woman, with graying hair, that couldn't be her? Could it?
What happened to the beautiful young thing that made his heart flutter?
The same thing that happened to him, though he hasn't paused to notice it. In his mind the passing years have not taken their toll, he still sees himself as the same dashing young man. Though that does require quite a bit of squinting!
Murray does relate a story about an informal reunion that he arranges with his childhood neighborhood friends. It was prompted by seeing a photograph taken of the group at a birthday party. The group was the neighborhood kids that shared a long period of their childhood and adolescence. These friendships lasted well into high school and even several through college.
When he sees his old buddies he will admit to the ravages of time. However he says that the essence of the inner boy and girl still shine through. They are the same, yet different. Life has changed them as much as it has changed him, but not beyond recognition.
My own experiences vary quite bit from his. While I have had a few close childhood friends, my relationships with them usually only lasted a few years. I attended three different grammar schools and two different high schools. My best school buddy was the best man at my wedding, though it's been twenty five years since I've seen him.
Maybe because Murray had an upper middle class upbringing, he has better stories that he shared with his friends. He is also a lot older than me. He was born in 1920, ten years before my Mother, and thirty four years before I was! He was a part of my Grandparent's generation, though their life experiences had nothing in common.
My family was blue collar, but the real difference was that my Mom did not like being close to people outside the family. She did not include outsiders within the family circle of life. Our family life was lived much more privately.
I guess that I'm a lot like her.
I remember my early childhood, grade school and high school years, and the years that followed.
There were always cars.
I first remember a '59 Chevy Impala. Then a '61 Corvair Greenbriar Van, a '64 Pontiac Tempest wagon, a '60 Chevy Suburban, a '68 Pontiac Le Mans wagon, a '63 Lincoln sedan, and a '75 Chevy Stepside pick up.
I've got memories that are attached to my experiences with each of these cars. I've shared a couple about the '59 Impala and '64 Tempest wagon.
But I can't say that seeing one of these cars makes me relive those experiences.
I suppose that some people are just more attuned to their pasts, Nothing wrong with that. I suppose that they hold onto all kinds of mementos. They are probably surrounded by photos on their walls. That helps keep them in touch with their past.
I choose to experience the memories of my past differently. I have few mementos and photos. I kind of prefer to leave the past, in the past.
I found a yellow '77 Coupe de Ville for sale on CL and showed it to my Wife. This is the model of car that was present during a pivotal time in both of our lives. The instant when we met, got married and started the beginnings of our life together. She didn't express much interest in it! I told her that if any car could bring back the past, it would be this one.
Did I want to buy it? Not really. I'd rather get a newer Mustang GT convertible.
The Past is the Past, it's gone and isn't coming back. The present is Today and you'd better not blink, or you'll miss it. The Future is the mystery, but we've got a pretty good idea how the story is going to end!
I think it's time to take a cue from Forrest Gump on this subject. "That's all I've got to say about that!"
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