A Word From Big John
As I sat down at my computer, I put on my reading glasses and thought to myself ... “you just can’t see as well as you used to”. Or can I?
There are a lot of things I can see better now than when I was younger. Like my dad telling me at age ten, if I wanted a trail bike that we were not going to buy one that would break every time I used it. A new Bridgestone trail 60 was $275.00 and he would go half ... but, I had to earn the other half. One year later I had saved $140.00, dad and I went and bought the trail bike. I couldn’t see why he was doing this then, but I can now.
Or ...... When I did so many burnouts in my ‘61 T Bird that the rear tires had cord showing. Dad never said a word about the black marks on the street, but told me that I could not move the car until it had decent tires on it. I just couldn’t see why he didn’t help with a little money so that I could keep driving my car. I can now.
He was teaching me that my actions or when I make decisions, they had consequences. He didn’t lecture me (that wouldn’t have worked) and although it took years for me to get it ... I finally did.
Looking at the world today, I have to say, that lessons must not have been taught to everybody. Now ... I’m not going to get into the debate on whether we should bail out the Big 3. I do not want to see the only cars sold in this country coming from somewhere else ... but, there does not seem to be any consequences for bad decisions anymore.
There are so many debates on what killed Packard, or if Studebaker had only done this ... and Hudson should have had a V8. What were these guys thinking? All they had to do was FLY to D.C. and tell their Uncle that they had made bad decisions and now they needed someone else to pay for it. For years, the US was THE automobile capital of the world, you could tell the difference between a Ford from a Chevy.
Hell ... you could tell a Buick or an Olds from a Chevy. Not so anymore, unless you count the hundreds of 50’s and 60’s American iron that get shipped out of this country everyday.
Since we started Still Runnin Magazine, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many of you who seem to have learned the same lessons that I have. And a great many of you are passing this along to your kids. Let the kids help you in the garage (even though sometimes it makes things harder) and let them know that they are responsible for their actions. Hopefully as they get older their vision will improve. I know mine did.
Thanks Dad!
Keep em’ Runnin
Big John
