I remember as a boy when I was impatient and kept asking my father, "What time is it now?" or "How much longer will it be?" as we were on a long trip or waiting for something like Christmas so I could rip into the presents. My father would begin the lecture... "Just wait and see... One of these days when you grow up you will ask yourself where the time went and what you have to do to slow it down."
This week I am going to pick up the Shelby body at my friend's shop in Fresno which is about a three hour drive. I guess I never really grew up because after all these years I find myself with the same emotions that I had the night before Christmas and I can't go to sleep. Where's Dad when I need him? I'm sure he would have something supportive to say like.... "Go to sleep you dumb ass." Since he loved all things automotive himself and had numerous old cars in his collections over the years I'm sure he knew the same anxiety which makes for such fun and anticipation.
What's that old saying about one man's junk is another man's treasure? I used to laugh driving down some highway whenever I saw signs along the highway that read, "We buy junk. Antiques for sale." My new Shelby isn't an antique but to the untrained eye it sure does look like a piece of junk. But to me it's a work of art, something that I will take and massage and work back into the work of art it once was and more. Not at all unlike the Greek Phoenix, which according to legend was a great bird which consumed itself by fire and then rose alive from the ashes to live another period. Once again I will bring life back to what some see as an old car but what I see isn't old at all but instead something to bring life back to a couple of old racers and we too may rise about the ashes and soar not unlike some old legend.
Is it time to go yet? Are we almost there?
No comments:
Post a Comment