Driving in this morning, I had a small car zoom past me with a spoiler, pipes, the whirr sound of a souped-up engine, stickers on the window, and neon underneath.  My initial reaction was that of an old fuddy-dutty…what a waste of time, didn’t they have better things to spend their money on, gas costs too much to cruise, etc.   Then I thought back to my first car.  I was a senior in high school.  The car had started out it’s life as a white 1959 Ford Station Wagon with the fake wood panels on the side.  I’m pausing for the laughter …  Anyway, the original color had been white.  It was still a lot like white.  Randy Farrell and I decided to trick it out a bit.  Bought “mag” wheel rims (from working at Giant Foods of America over the Summer), flipped the lee springs (so the back end was higher than the fromt).  Even had a straight muffler installed, as I recall.  Didn’t make it go any faster, but it sounded better.  It had cracked windows (there would be ice on the inside of the windows after football games), a bench seat that was wide enough to lay down and sleep in, and an automatic transmission that was reluctant to go from one gear to the next.  Probably feeling it’s age.  It finally died when the engine locked up as I was cruising one day, for no apparent reason… 

After thinking about the silly things we did to that car, instead of making it more dependable, I figure what these guys are doing is nothing different…