I've been sitting here this afternoon, thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow. I've been slowly becoming an outsider, and losing interest. The thought came to me, maybe I need some inspiration from the people who came before me. Where did the typical car event come from, and why does it still exist? For example, most are structured around a 9 to 4 schedule. Arrive before noon, judging at noon, and trophies at 3, and then the place is empty by 4. Two trophies per class. Myself, I basically park the pig, go get some burritos or some chilli to warm me up, and then start circling the park like a muslim around Mecca. Sometimes I bring my camera, but these days I just use my cell phone if I see something neat I want to try and build. When I was a kid in Oregon, I don't remember any car shows like this. We always went to the Custom Car Show in the winter, but never seen hot rods in the park. The most I can remember is five or six hot rods at a drive-in burger place. But that wasn't ever a planned event. My two older brothers were, and mostly still are into hot rods, and what we built was mostly just to have fun in, and not to show in a park. I think my first Park and Hope I went to was a Goodguys event in Washington State. It was a lot of cars, and more than I was able to see in a day. We paid something like $45 to get in with a 32 roadster my brother built, and got absolutely nothing for it. We looked at each other, and said "that's the most expensive dash plaque I ever saw." So, anyway we never went to another one of those. I'm thinking it all started with the NSRA and Goodguys, and the little Park and Hope events we see in many towns are just wanna-be shows. Am I full of crap on this idea? Anyway, I'm wondering what the history of these are, and whether it has run its course.
The Jalopy Journal
