Boys & Toys

On Sunday, my son Jack and I went to a small car show at Bedford town park. As usual, when I told Jack where we were going, he protested vigorously. He rarely wants to do anything that doesn't involve a video screen. After he realized there was no dissuading me, he changed and we left for the park in our basketball stuff, so we could shoot some hoops after we looked at the cars. Upon arriving at the park, I changed seats with Jack and let him park my M3. He's done this before in his mother's suburban, but the SMG transmission and raw power of the M3 made parking my car much more difficult. Although jerky, he did fine.

We started at one corner of the parked rows of show cars and the first car we see is one of my favorites, the Porsche Carrera GT. It is just a fantastic automobile -- all power and performance, but only two seats and absolutely no trunk -- impractical, yes, but also awesome. As we moved down the row looking at a few more cars, Jack says, "I wish we could see a Shelby Cobra," and as if wishes were being granted this day, the next car in the row was indeed a 1964 Shelby Cobra coupe, all original, and completely restored! The owner was so impressed with Jack's knowledge and appreciation for the car, he removed the "Do Not Touch" sign and invited him to sit in the drivers seat. He looked fantastic in the car! He promised me he will own one someday -- I wouldn't be surprised, but I would be jealous.

The rest of the morning was spent wandering the remaining rows of cars. There were vintage 1931 Ford's, lot's of 50's era Mercurys, Chevys and Buicks. We saw some pristine 1955 Corvette convertibles as well as at least one from each of the next 4 decades. The Corvette has a fantastic heritage. I spent time explaining to Jack how cool the drivers of Carmaros, Pontiac GTOs and Firebirds were when I was in high school. He seemed more impressed with the large highway cruisers of the 1950's like the Buick Century, Chevy Bel Air or the Mercury Custom.

We spent about 2 hours moving from car to car -- we stopped at each and every one. By the time we left for basketball, Jack said, "That was pretty good." A rave review in teenage parlance -- I'll take it! By the way, I won the basketball game.