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There are very few things we can all agree on in this country. We’re divided into sets and subsets and subsets of subsets. We’re divided by gender, race and beliefs, but one of the very few things we can agree on, is we all love our cars. It defies all divisions, we all love our cars.

Still there are detractors, the cars manufactured today do pollute. That is true, but I once heard an engineer for Toyota explain, “Automobiles are only a hundred years old and we’re still learning. We must study nature; nature has made things for billions of years.” I have great faith that we will progress with new automobiles and will meet the goal of a clean and safe vehicle. This confidence comes from the knowledge that we American’s love our cars!

[caption id="attachment_768" align="alignleft" width="144"] Tesla S[/caption]

In 1959, this country couldn’t get a rocket off the launch pad, by 1969; Buzz Aldrin was posing for the MTV statue on the lunar surface. This country properly motivated can do anything; the moon landings prove that point. So building a safe clean car? Pfff, give us a hard one.

Do you know how much American’s love their cars? I can illustrate how much with just two words – Drive In. Try to think of any business in America without a drive in. Drive in restaurants of course, drive through banking, drive through convenience stores and even drive through liquor stores. Drive through Funeral homes, “Yeah, I really loved you, but not enough to get out of the car.” Churches operating on Sunday mornings in the same Drive in theaters, where sinning went on Saturday night!

Drive in Churches

Drive through car washes offering hand-detailing, because nothing is too good for baby. I’m guilty; I have fallen in love with engineered steel and cast iron power plants. I have spent ridiculous amounts of money on automobiles, treated as one of the family and what’s more, I’d do it again! I’ve spent Saturday nights taking tooth-brush to a front grill, you name it, and I’ve cleaned it or replaced it. This was my car, there were many others, but this one was mine. It was forty years old and I wanted it to be perfect, because I loved that car.

[caption id="attachment_881" align="alignleft" width="177"] 1965 Mustang Coupe[/caption]

Fixing a car because you have to go to work on Monday is one thing, but putting a shop rag inside the socket so as not to mar the mounting bolt head, that’s something else entirely. One is labor the other is joy, the feeling of knowing, it is absolutely perfect. To pop open the hood of a 1965 Mustang and it shines with perfection.

The best of everything is what she deserves and the best is what she’ll get. She is pride and joy, she is engineering and technology, she’s history and memories of good times past. She is family and she is my friend, she rarely argues or complains, when I leave her. She knows I’ll be back, she knows, I love my car.

Once upon a time there were Service Stations. Attendants would come to your window and ask, "Filler up?"

"No," you'd reply, "Gimme four dollars worth of regular."

The attendants would wash your windshield, check your oil or anything else you might request.

Inside the stations were free maps, ten cent Coca colas and maybe a candy machine. It was long ago but it was not so long ago...