This is for the author on the Jalopy Journals home page. Is the car pictured the one you saw? I work in HB and comute in my 70's style 68 Impala this is why I ask, it could have been me? If it were me and I was ignoring the attention and being a **** there may have been a couple reasons A. hungover? B. 8;am and on my way to work? C. just driving in a fog? I eat up the attention I get in my rides. My kids luv cruisin with me, athough they think people are laughing at us when their staring. (could be, but I'm over it)! Anyways I'm glad an old skool lowrider took your mind off reality for a moment!
Nope... The car pictured is just one I had on my hardrive... The actual car was a '63 rag top. Light metallic blue with a white fog right down the middle... 100-spoke daytons...
Ryan, I can only echo the emotion you have pointed out. The juxtaposition of you in all of your properness vs. that of the guy in the 60's custom casual is exactly how I feel when I am out doing my daily commute and I run up onto a guy in (or on) a cool *** ride. I have to wear formal digs to work as well. Seeing someone in a sweet car or on a really rad bike makes you ache to be in that guys shoes for that moment. It pains you to be on the other side of the fence and you yearn to let the guy somehow realize that you are cool too and that you feel where he's coming from, but waving at him would only make you look desperate.... Everyone has to make bread and you can't take vacation all year, but it sure makes you feel like you should take a day off just to be with your car - living in the moment all day long man...
Viva la vida Que ayer que ayer Se fue Vivan las sombras De mis voces Llorando lejos Vivan los suenos Que nunca despertaron Mi amor Felicidad Que importa ya Si canto a la luz de tu sombra
Maybe I'd better clarify. I was responding to the piece Ryan wrote. I have no idea what the poetry means. It may be great too. Can somebody translate it?
here's my shot at it. live the life of yesterday that left live the shadows of my voices crying from afar live the dreams that were never awaken my love Happiness counts when i sing to the light of your shadow gotdamn i need to get to work!!!!
I was about to give you a little rub for the posting here and not on the gj, but I see that you've given it a little love for the day. Day dreaming about cars . . . that's what it's all about. I've held out . . . the PT Cruiser doesn't do it for me . . . maybe a warmed/modded turbo version . . . I dunno. The HHR is a funky little number . . . but I'm afraid Chevrolet is trying to do the big "people will love to mod them up" kick like Chrysler did originally. Give me a HHR with a turbo, stripper model . . . light weight . . . good gas mileage . . . hmm. Oh yea, and keep the $$$/month payment . . . well, I guess I'll just be content working on my toys. Brakes are getting the treatment now. More on blog.
I just want to say that I had a similar, yet opposite experience.... (is that possible?) Here I am on the way to a rad job I love, get to think about cars all day, get paid to do so, and I'm sitting in my cousin's borrowed VW at the light because my own car is in motor jail. I should be doing burnouts and scaring old ladies at 7:00am... I look over, and there's this beautiful black '58 Ford with a guy in a suit and a kid seat. Going to work, dropping his kid off at day care, probably to some mindless job, and he's driving a cool car. The light turns green, I let the clutch out in the little five speed and try to pull away with as much "car guy dignity" as one can have while driving a Cabriolet...... Hahahahahaha. Sad, and yet true...
why is it when I drive my kustom to work I see no others kool cars. when I drive my beater toyota driver I see nothing but kool cars?
I moved to Bartlesville, OK in late '96. I drove my Nomad every day, and I kept seeing a couple of cars being driven all over town all the time. One was a chopped full custom 49 or 50 Merc 4 dr and the other was a 60 Impala 4 dr hdtp mild custom with 60 Merc grille, etc. Turns out both cars were owned by the same guy, who worked in an office building downtown and wore business clothes at work but drove the cool cars to and from. Wasn't long before I met him (his daughter was in our church's preschool) and made what I hope is a lifelong friendship with none other than straykatkustoms!
Better yet if you own a custom why are you driveing the beater toyota.??? Sorry I just needed to be an ***. Oh I'm bein' followed by a moon shadow, moon shadow moon shadow. Just kicken and hoppin' on a moon shawdow, moon shadow, moon shadow . . . Just thought I'd throw that in for the language impaired.
even though I'm lucky enough to live in beautiful sunny SoCal were it never rains and the weather is always perfect (bs) it does tend to heat up and my 68 has no AC and black interior, it tends to get a little warm and the toyo has AC! Call me a puss. Also when it rains here my wiper dont work on the 68 (just one of those things thats not important enough to fix). So I guess if the weather is just right I will drive it. Which is more often than not.
I used to drive my '40 Stude coop, or '57 Chevy two door to work about twice, three times a week cuz I had the kind of job that allowed me to be in a car most of the day (I sold commercial printing)...I also wore a suit and tie...and only called on those clients, the day I drove my hot rods,,that absolutely loved my car(s) in front of their shops or offices...it was absolute joy talking cars and picking up printing jobs...on 17th Street in downtown Denver (Denver's finanancial district full of multi-story buildings), I made it a point of being there at lunch time when the offices emptied of those gorgeous things called females...never had any trouble chatting them up when I was in my hot rods...and a coat and tie didn't hinder a thing. R-
Not sure I understand what this thread is about but here's my contribution. When I drive my 68 VW squareback (daily driver) I tell myself that it's for fuel eceonomy. Not really. I love VW's and the sqaureback is my family mini-van. When I drive my naturally patina'd 59 chevy truck to work it's becuase I'm giving the big F.U. to the coporate drones in their BMW's. Not really. I'm one of those people with one of those cars. When I dirve my 60 Lincoln to work it's because I know that one door panel on that ride has more style and cl*** than a congested highway full of soccer moms in SUV's. And when I drive the nice car to work it's becuase on that day I just don't feel like sharing my cool stuff with the rest of the world... and the A/C works in that one
i drive one of my customs (old cars) EVERYDAY to work, as i dont own anything new, and i love it. i work at Yahoo-- a place where the lot is full of what seems like either Prius' (engineer geeks here love to try to hack another 1/2mpg out of them) or BMWs (yuppy geeks who like to drive gold chains around to show they made money on stock.) i get lots of looks.... some thumb's up.... many corporate drones laugh at the site of me s****ing over the speed bumps or waking the dead with my loud exhaust as i come into the parking lot. i too ignore both kinda looks. luckily we dont have to wear ties or suits to work. life is good. -scott noteboom
Igualmente mi amigo At work I park in a lot full of the Toyota Pious gang and on the other side of the fence it's all towering SUVs...(yes I meant to say Pious) It seems the urban I-am-better-than-you minded are either obsessed with rubbing it in your face that they can afford to overpay for a gas saving "green" machine or go to the other extreme with gas guzzling Super-Sized SUV to haul their (one) kid to school in... ....but let's not get off the tracks here. The point is - I am a car guy too and Ryan nailed it in his story. You get lost in the rapture of the moment and you are so enamoured with every aspect of a really cool car, the lines, the sounds, the textures......Then it drives away and you are ****ed back into reality. And when you look around - no matter if you are all suited up and heading for a meeting or you are in your everyday car, wearing your everyday clothes, heading to your everyday job - you realize the blase of the modern world and it's commonalities....and your mind reels as you try to get back to that zen that you feel when you are with your own ride. You daydream about all of the things you want to do to it - or maybe you dream of getting the car of your dreams and how you'd treat her. I can't tell you how many nights I can't sleep because I am running scenarios through my mind of how I could sell this and fix that and trade this service to fix the other and if I only had about this much money I could......
Ryan, really dig this entry in the Journal. It takes some skill and some perspective to see that interaction the way you did.....finding that deeper layer in such a simple and common situation.....very cool. When I'm in my old truck, I'm in another world....kind of a zone. I usually don't like looking over at people that are looking at me, it's like it disrupts....... I don't know how to describe the experience, but it happens every time I drive my truck. I'm not the guy who sits at a desk most of the day. I'm not the guy who has to get to a meeting. I'm not the guy who is checking ****ing email on my crackberry...... I'm just in my world and I feel at home....the world is right. I can clear my head and just think about the road, the V8, the exhaust, etc.... It's just about the only time in the day I'm not thinking about a million other things at once and I love that. When I don't drive my truck...I'm the guy who is staring with jealousy at the guy in the cool car.....just wishing I was in my truck enjoying that same thing. -JOYO
I drove a 65 Impala SS everyday for about 6 years, and Ryans post really made me miss that old car . Its taken me some time to realize I want old cars every day.Not just the daily driver and the project car. His coments really nailed it. Id trade all the times Ive had AC or a decent stereo to be the guy I was driving a cool car everyday. ( at least the car was cool all the time , not sure if I was ha ha!) Im going to buy another Impala soon, hopefully very soon. Great post Ryan.
sounds ALOT like where i work and i, too, dont have anything else to drive except my '58 F100. cool thing is, by the natural course of things i've discovered the 2 other gearheads in the building.
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