A Lifelong Love Affair

A LIFELONG LOVE AFFAIR

So, here I am, 82 years old and still acting like an artist just starting out on his career.
I get excited every time I get a new assignment to draw or paint an old car. Now, don’t get me wrong, when I say “Excited” it’s not like I felt when I met Sue, my late wife & close friend.
I’m talking about genuine affection for the look & feel of those old swooping fenders, the massive chrome grills and those sexy wire wheels.
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Take my 1970 Oldsmobile Toronado; well, don’t take it, just look at those curves and lines. I touch it when I walk by “Her” parked in my garage. I’ve seen this silent ritual take place at car shows………….not by the owner so much as the spectator who’s there to admire the same thing we do showing our cars. The public is encouraged not to touch the cars unless with the permission of the owner.
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When that happens it’s like a baptismal or a sacred ritual of mutual tenderness and love. Just look at that 1932 Stutz Bearcat. Even better, go up to the owner and ask if you can see the motor. “Can you start ‘er up, please?”………Varooooom, Varooooom, Purrrrrrr, ’Died & gone to heaven’.
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My good friend, Andy, of Tucson just finished a yearlong restoration and re-powering his 1952 Chevrolet Bel Air. Andy has owned this car all of his adult life and watched in frustration while the desert pack rats ate his electrical system until there was nothing but shreds of copper wire and ruined fuel lines rendering the old Chevy a basket case. The sun turned the Chevy’s two-tone paint job into an unrecognizable blend of raw metal, faded marron and patches of peeling paint.
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Most would have had it towed to the crusher. Not Andy. Look close at the custom dark green paint with devilish ghost flames of light blue faded to off-white. A masterpiece. Check out the upholstery, that dark green leather with strategically placed lime accents is brilliant! A love affair? You bet! The pack rats? Andy keeps a sophisticated electrical strobe light in the engine compartment. Drives the rat’s nuts!
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The love affair that has grown men cheating on their wife’s and girlfriends is epidemic. “Honey, when will you be coming in for dinner?” “It’s getting cold and the kids miss you”
Travel to any part of our country; no, the world and where you see groups of boys in men’s clothing huddled around a 1931 Chrysler or a classic 1935 Hispano-Suiza K-6 Cabriolet you’ll see what I mean. Disgusting!