Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Thoughts after watching American Graffiti.

While I was out of town on a weekend get a way, I attended two automotive events, a Cars and Burgers, on Friday afternoon, and a fairly big car show on Saturday in Sonoma.

Later that Saturday afternoon I watched American Graffiti on DVD. 

I've seen this movie numerous times, but I still enjoy it. But this time I had a different take on it.

While all the kids are out cruising in in their cars, most were just stock cars, many were obviously their parent's cars. There were some obviously customized cars; Steve's '58 Chevy, a lowered '49 Mercury, and of course, Milner's '32 Ford hot rod. In the background there were a couple of customized cars, a '36 Ford coupe, a Fad T Bucket, and a '57 Chevy coupe. Oh, we can't forget Falfa's mean '55 Chevy. 

The subtext in the movie is change. Oftentimes the period in your life calls for you to change, to move on to new things. To close the current chapter that you are in, and seize the opportunities that come along with a change in status. The characters in this story were facing the change from being kids in high school, to young adulthood. Which is a pretty familiar transition. 

Steve and Curt are going back East to attend college, and it's their last night before they leave. Yes this movie is focused on the male protagonists and doesn't deal much with the girls in the story. 

However there was a strong female character played by Candy Clark as Debbie. She was the exact opposite to Charles Martin Smith's character. She was very confident, knew how to hold her own with the guys and get what she wanted. We don't learn much about her personal life, but she obviously had evolved into a confident young woman. The film doesn't tell us what happens in her future.

Toad plays it by ear, while Debbie runs the show.

We don't know Terry the Toad's situation, he doesn't mention high school graduation, and it doesn't seem that he is currently in high school with Curt's sister, who will be a senior. He is pretty insecure, but he seems to be well accepted by the group. However, Milner does like to play pranks on him, and we see that he is often the butt of his contemporaries jokes.

Leaving a familiar little town that you grew up in, is hard. You'll be leaving your parent's home, and friends that you have known all your life. And there is the chance that you will never be coming back!

Steve is the regular Joe.

Steve was initially hot to go, even though he would leave his high school girlfriend behind. Maybe he was looking forward to that!  He was looking forward to exciting possibilities in the near future. 

Curt is not just trapped in the back seat of the Merc, he's also trapped by self doubt.

Curt was unsure about leaving. It appears that he was a serious student and was really looking to leave his hometown and find an avenue for further growth. But the prospect of leaving the familiar behind, has got him second guessing himself. 

Milner is a reluctant hero that would rather stay in the Past.

Milner wasn't going anywhere, he has a job as a mechanic and is living an adult life, though he seems to prefer hanging out with high school kids. My guess is that he's three or four years out of high school. He claims that he's attending Junior College, but we're not sure if that's the truth, or if he just handing some girl a line. 

The Pharohs, I'm pretty sure that they aren't going anywhere, unless it's to jail! 

Being bad is it's own reward, until it isn't!

Most people just own and drive cars without any sentimentality. Those kids in the movie grew up to drive Toyotas and Hondas. Then BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexus. 

A question formed in my mind while I was at the car show; "Why do people keep and build up expensive restored or customized cars?" Thirties, Forties, and Fifties cars, very nicely finished, which cost them quite a bit of money. Sure it's a hobby, and these cars may be something that they wished that they owned back in their youth. And maybe they can afford to have nice new cars to drive, and still can afford to have a show car. I wouldn't think that it is just for the trophies. 

I'm not being a hater, or being envious. Of course it would be nice to have the things that you want. Or maybe they have to sacrifice to have that old car. Everyone's situation is different. 

My real question is why are they fixated on those type of cars?

Is it just nostalgia?

They own these cars and they take them to show to other people. There are people that own expensive new cars, but they don't take them to Cars and Coffee events. Unless they are fancy sports cars. They just drive them. 

John Milner was fixated on his high school hero status as the guy with the seriously fast car. Nothing wrong with that. He was still involved with his hot rod, and hadn't yet settled down in married life like many of his peers. He didn't even want to have a steady girlfriend, he enjoyed the cruising and random meetings instead. 

Milner appears to come from a blue collar background. The idea of attending college didn't have much appeal or reality for him. This was the early 1960's and many blue collar youths went straight into the job market right after high school. This was also before the draft for the Vietnam War started.

The Pharohs were fixated on being a gang that is involved in petty criminality, and whose frame of reference is their own subculture. Their goal was to be considered cool/bad by the people in town. The reality of the outside world would surely intrude in the future. Marriage for some, detention or jail time for some, and others would enlist in the military to avoid prosecution and detention. Or maybe just to get out of their old surroundings and the low expectations that their town had for them.

 As we move forward in our lives, we also expect that our friends and contemporaries will do the same. The rites of passage into adulthood occur at roughly the same time for most of us. If one of our friends is stuck at an earlier phase, we wonder what's going on with them. The idea of settling down in a long range career or job, as well as with a permanent romantic partner is considered the norm. Settling down and getting serious about our future. We start to worry about our friends that seem stuck in the past.

This movie is a nostalgic snapshot of Americana and the car culture as it existed after the close of the 1950's but before the societal revolution of the 1960's.  This movie is a favorite among many car enthusiasts. I like it because of the cars and the music, the era of my high school graduation is ten years in the future of the setting of the movie. I never experienced that culture first hand.

Although I had been very involved with old cars and even more involved with motorcycles, I've never been focused on restoring a car, or building up a show machine. As I entered my mid twenties I was busy with school and work. Then I got married and was too busy and didn't have the money or time to mess with expensive old cars. I bought my first new cars, bought a house, and was involved in starting and raising a family;

Yeah, I know. That sounds awful conventional.

But that life has it's rewards, ones that I'm currently enjoying. 

I've come to realize that investing in our future and setting ourselves up to build up the rewards that will follow, is often just a matter of accepting the change and responsibility as it presents itself. 

Are Milner and the Pharohs both examples of arrested development? 

Of course they are all still fairly young as they are presented in the movie. As we know, a lot can change in our lives, and surprisingly quickly. We are often surprised how our old friend's lives have evolved.

Look at all those Porsches!

This current issue Of Road and Track magazine celebrates the heritage of the California car culture centered around Los Angeles. This magazine has always been directed at a different audience than Hot Rod, Car Craft, and  other " dirty hands on" titles. It is also quite different from those that celebrate Kustom Cars and their Kulture, like Rod and Custom, and Street Rodder. 

It featured a more affluent emphasis on sports cars and road racing. It covered more expensive foreign sporty cars, though there was always some overlap with the "do it yourself" enthusiasts, especially in the early days. 

While they recognize the contributions of early hot rodders and builders, they have always been about what is new and current in the market.

So are these the "evolved enthusiasts" who would not likely be thinking about hot rods and Fifties cruisers? They have moved along with the times. Is this where all car enthusiasts should have ended up? Is a fascination with Pre War and Fifties cars, not to mention old time Hot Rods and Kustoms, a sign of arrested development?  

Maybe so, maybe no.

The car enthusiast community is a big tent. There is room for a lot of different interpretations of the hobby. Many enthusiasts who were poor kids building up their cars with cast off and wrecking yard parts, are now successful and affluent enough to have shops custom building components for their current projects, or even doing all the work and assembly. Other guys may still be scraping along, but directing their funds and energies into maintaining their classic Porsche. Or they may have finally attained the ownership of the vintage model that they have spent years wanting.

As I discussed in a previous post, car guys are into more than just cars, so they have tempered their passion as life has taken them in different directions. That's the normal course of development for most people. 

Whatever the intensity that the enthusiast fire burns, we should all welcome and appreciate the light and warmth that it provides.

In other words, 'Do your own thing!"