Erin Evernham asks, “What Would they Say, If These Cars Could Talk?”
Having spent most of my life around race cars and collector cars, I often wonder about the stories behind each car. Yeah I know they are inanimate objects but I still like to use my imagination now and again... or maybe I just watched movies like “Cars” and “Christine” one too many times.
Take an old race car for instance... Wouldn’t it be neat to
hear the stories about when it was in its heyday? About the characters who drove the car, about
its “injuries and burns,” about its “surgeries,” about its arch rivalries on
the track, about getting soaked in champagne in Victory Lane, about the day its
owner moved on to a newer and younger model… And what about the rest of the
story? Did it end up getting refurbished and reincarnated for a museum or did
it head to the graveyard like most? Or even worse: did it end up in the crusher?
Or what about the story of an old hot rod: It would be
amazing to hear about hanging out at the local diner, the pinup girls and
greasers, the drag racing on the streets, the men and women who rode in the car
and the roads they traveled on, what “surgeries” they had. Did they street race
or were they just built for show? Did they get new springs and shocks, a new
power plant or have their roof chopped, did their owner treat them like a baby and
keep them nice and shiny or were they neglected and left outside under a tree?
Or an old woody wagon… I would love to hear about the
surfboard it carried, the late-night beach parties it attended, the tiki bars
it frequented, the beer spilled on its interior, the road trips to catch the
biggest waves, the views it enjoyed while cruising the Pacific Coast Highway, the
salty air that slowly wore away at its body and frame, the stickers the owners
plastered over its back window, and even the beach bodies that partied on the
hood and tailgate.
The more I am around and exposed to older cars the more I get interested in the details. They all have a story to tell and I really enjoy thinking of how they spent their everyday lives and the time period in which they lived. About the culture that surrounded them and the stories of their owners. Did their owners go on their first date in the car? Did they share their first kiss in the back seat? Did they road trip across the country in it? Did the cars spend their lives with multiple different families? Or were they a one-family type of car?
To me, cars have personalities. They have character. So isn’t it fun to think about their souls and the lives they lived?
