Hoopty

Let’s take a trip back to 2010. You and the guys have just filled up, you got your chips and NOS energy drink from the gas station and you’re ready to occupy the nearest shopping center or grocery store parking lot.  Nothing else matters.  Your sidekick buzzes in your pocket: it’s that one guy with the AE86 asking for the address of the meet.  Life is good.  Fast forward 15 years, a marriage, 2 kids, and a Toyota Sienna minivan later, and those nights are almost completely forgotten.  But do they have to be? 

It’s hard to believe the memories of those muggy summer nights are 15 plus years old.  Sure, we’ve got festivals today, big meets, filling up race tracks, convention centers and the like.  But the lawlessness of car meets back then was where it was at.  There were no organizers, no sponsors, no press.  Just 20-30 people on a facebook group that decide to get together on a random Tuesday night.  Personally, as I pass by the local auto parts store, whose parking lot is usually littered with old Japanese shitboxes, the flashbacks hit me, my neck cranes, and the memories come back.  

So what’s the problem with car meets today?  I think it can be broken into a few different categories:

Commercialization:  Listen, I’m happy that our passion is becoming more mainstream.  But if all we have is a big festival or event, that magic and intimacy is lost. That commercialization also leads to cost.  Not everyone wants to be charged an entry fee, Not everyone wants to be bombarded with photographers, and promos, and all the rest.  Sometimes we just want to sit in a poorly lit parking lot and chinwag about our hoopties.  

Infrequency and Location:  Let’s face it, nobody really wants to wait months until that one festival near them comes up, or drive 3 states over for another one.  That was the magic of the car meets of old.  They were impromptu and unofficial.  There wasn’t any pressure, nobody was frantically applying spray wax and polishing.  It was just “Bring what ya got”.  

Corvette guys:  I don’t think we need an explanation here.

So what do we do about it?  Do we continue to reminisce about the days of old? Hopelessly dreaming of years past? Or do we bring it back?  Albeit with a more mature and responsible approach.  Why not try it?  Get the old gang back together.  Find a parking lot and catch up.  And pass that flame down to the next generation.