Hi Nick,
No doubt you did create interest in older cars, and especially sharing respect with alert young minds.
Many small kids can be found to be so very sensitive to aesthetics and fine art, colors, shapes and designs ..... just ask them .....
The delicate proportions and lines created by extremely sensitive auto body designers and "all" designers during the 1920's & early 1930's show us today that they were truly master creators of art forms such as we see in our Model As.
Thanks for sharing your trying to show kindness to others .....
Remember the Tiger Woods commercials for Buick and the designs they touted from long ago when those commercials came out a few years back?
I see tons of shoe box or bar soap examples of modern auto design these days. I don't see any particular style that strikes me as to being original or enticing. Instead the focus seems to be on the amenities and gadgets. For the most part I see only cookie cutter-styled cars on the roads these days.
It is even more prevalent in the design of trucks.
I have gone to several local car shows and swap meets lately, but I can count the amount of stock Model A's without using all my fingers and toes. I can also say that most of those which i have seen usually had a sign that read "Look but don't touch." When I had my tudor in the past, when my youngest daughter was in her early teens, I can still remember how thrilled she was to show off that big steering wheel or to honk that wonderful ahooga horn. She loved getting others to sit in our car and enjoy what it felt like. Heck, I can even remember allowing her to stand on the running board as we drove down a country lane so she could experience what tons of folk did when these cars were common place on the roads of the times.
When I was at my last event this past weekend, I remember looking behind the cars there and noting that virtually none of the owners were beside their car and actively telling stories as to how they bought their car or what the differences were between them or modern cars. In fact, most were sitting in lawn chairs and looking a bit put off by their boredom. I saw several of those signs in the cars there, too. I didn't see many kids actively showing off the cars of their parents and it made me wonder at the time if kids were losing interest in the sport? I can understand wanting to protect a vintage car from abuse, but that is not really what i was addressing. To me, I just wonder if this sport has failed to capture the youth interest and involvement?
I also began to notice in the shows that I attended, that most of the vintage auto owners are in my own age category (late 60-early 70's), most especially those who own Model A's. It is sort of sad, as the original owners have mostly passed away and the present ones will likely be in that same category before all that many years. I am wondering if our youth will pick up and carry on or if eventually the interest will just fizzle out?
When I was at a local show in Shawnee, Ok., I did have a young kid of about 10 notice that I was shooting photos of his Dad's beater truck and the Model A next to it. He came over and told me all about that truck and the club they were involved in. He was every bit as proud of that old beater as anyone with a high points Model A could ever be. He reminded me of when my daughter was about his age and so thrilled to talk about our tudor at the time at the car shows we attended. I asked him to get into the truck and let me take a picture of him. It made his day and it also made mine just for the memories.
We really need kids to be involved.
He scratched the apron on the way in
...I guess if others let a free for all go on it makes it okay for every car on the show field.. There are civil ways to take interest in these old cars with respect, dignity, conversation.
.
