The Times They Are A Changin ?

[Guest Dee Jay]

I just got back from an old car swap meet. I've attended this meet for years and remember when brass era and stuff from the 20s and 30s was popular. This year in watching what people were buying and talking to vendors it seems like there wasn't much interest in stuff prior to the 60s. Most people interested in early cars and parts are gray beards like myself and our numbers are deminishing. What is going to happen with the older cars when that generation is gone?

[R W Burgess]

Dee, I'm a person that likes to promote advertizing for a fun product.

The best way to promote early cars, brass or otherwise, is to drive them. Offer kids rides in these cars and let them get a taste of what open early cars are like, even the closed ones for that matter.

An excellent way to do this is in a large group.???

Yes, I'm speaking of AACA tours here. When a large group of early antique cars get together, people stop in their tracks and look, listen, and ask questions.

Promote the hobby, I say. It's the best way to save the early cars.

Wayne-'29 Essex

[Guest dokks6t9]

I just got back from an old car swap meet. I've attended this meet for years and remember when brass era and stuff from the 20s and 30s was popular. This year in watching what people were buying and talking to vendors it seems like there wasn't much interest in stuff prior to the 60s. Most people interested in early cars and parts are gray beards like myself and our numbers are deminishing. What is going to happen with the older cars when that generation is gone?

They're going to get rodded...

[DAVE A]

Being that I am in Crosleys, I have always been from the "please touch" side of the hobby where we encouraged kids to get into our cars and take pictures, take kids for rides, and the like. I always frowned on the "don't touch" crowd and was highly critical of them. After a year of concours level shows, (walk a mile in the shoes so to speak) I begin to understand the point of view. For even a small car like the Crosley, it takes almost a week of detailing to get the car to a level befitting this type of show. I can't begin to imagine what it takes to detail a fine Packard or the like, not to mention the risk of damage to irreplacable parts, exquisitely painted bodies and fine upholstery.

So where do we draw the middle of the road? As Wayne has mentioned, unless we get the kids interested, our hobby will be lost in a generation or 2 and as mentioned the cars will be lost to the flashy and louder portions that appeal to the young. At the same time, when you have a fine show car, you don't want to let the cotton candy get ground into the upholstery. A number of suggestions, if I may.

First of all, a please touch car at every show. If there is one car there with the understanding that this is the car to get in to and have your picture taken, honk the horn, and get the feel, maybe even take a ride...then it is easy to make the rest of the field a no touch area and people understand it. It creates the opportunity to explain car show ettiquette to the uninformed without it being a hostile environment.

Next, if a young person shows particular interest, invite them back to your shop (with parents of course) to see how a car is restored and the time and effort that goes into every car. You could end up with a helper and a future AACA senior award winner. I know of numerous restoration projects that have started just this way.

Find a way to include young people in you local clubs. Get them involved. When you have a show, have them do something that is theirs. In the Crosley Club, we have a youth project where we have awarded a young man a car...a piece at a time. As long as the restoration progresses, it progresses toward becoming his car. Most of the parts and supplies were donated by members and suppliers. At the National show, there are a couple of games that are done as a fund raiser for the youth project. They don't make a lot of money, but they give the youth a chance to group together for a common cause and a common unity.

Finally, have something to give them that they can carry away. Old copies of club magazines, coloring sheets, historical literature copies etc. are great things to give to kids. Make sure the address to your web site is on the literature and an e-mail where they can send their questions and get some help if they want it. .

I am sure there are a hundred other ways to do this. Not all of them involve just kids. They all involve ways to get more people in not shut them out. Yes the times are a changin. It is our task to figure out how to change with them so we can keep our hobby alive.

[Guest dokks6t9]

My 40 Olds, which is new to me, has all the original interior in it. Anyone, as long as they haven't just got out of the swamp, is welcome inside, or to go for a ride. Same as my Nova. In fact, I invite people to open the door and have a seat. I understand the people with the extreme show vehicles, but to me, the cars are wasted. A car was meant to drive, and I do exactly that. Both my cars have chips on the paint, and a little soiled carpet but they're drivers and I drive them... Not in the snow, rain, or mud, but still drive the heck out of them. If they break, they get fixed...40 years ago, I used to hear the sneers and laughs and bad jokes about some people's cars that were just not up to the snob-type people.Yes, alot of that was directed to some of my cars, and it hurt. I vowed I would NEVER become someone like that, and when I see a car with drips, chips, and runs in the paint, done by a 20 year old first timer, I just compliment him on his success, and offer what I can to help. No one was born a perfect whatever, and we all have to learn.

[Guest dokks6t9]

Being that I am in Crosleys, I have always been from the "please touch" side of the hobby where we encouraged kids to get into our cars and take pictures, take kids for rides, and the like. I always frowned on the "don't touch" crowd and was highly critical of them. After a year of concours level shows, (walk a mile in the shoes so to speak) I begin to understand the point of view. For even a small car like the Crosley, it takes almost a week of detailing to get the car to a level befitting this type of show. I can't begin to imagine what it takes to detail a fine Packard or the like, not to mention the risk of damage to irreplacable parts, exquisitely painted bodies and fine upholstery.

So where do we draw the middle of the road? As Wayne has mentioned, unless we get the kids interested, our hobby will be lost in a generation or 2 and as mentioned the cars will be lost to the flashy and louder portions that appeal to the young. At the same time, when you have a fine show car, you don't want to let the cotton candy get ground into the upholstery. A number of suggestions, if I may.

First of all, a please touch car at every show. If there is one car there with the understanding that this is the car to get in to and have your picture taken, honk the horn, and get the feel, maybe even take a ride...then it is easy to make the rest of the field a no touch area and people understand it. It creates the opportunity to explain car show ettiquette to the uninformed without it being a hostile environment.

Next, if a young person shows particular interest, invite them back to your shop (with parents of course) to see how a car is restored and the time and effort that goes into every car. You could end up with a helper and a future AACA senior award winner. I know of numerous restoration projects that have started just this way.

Find a way to include young people in you local clubs. Get them involved. When you have a show, have them do something that is theirs. In the Crosley Club, we have a youth project where we have awarded a young man a car...a piece at a time. As long as the restoration progresses, it progresses toward becoming his car. Most of the parts and supplies were donated by members and suppliers. At the National show, there are a couple of games that are done as a fund raiser for the youth project. They don't make a lot of money, but they give the youth a chance to group together for a common cause and a common unity.

Finally, have something to give them that they can carry away. Old copies of club magazines, coloring sheets, historical literature copies etc. are great things to give to kids. Make sure the address to your web site is on the literature and an e-mail where they can send their questions and get some help if they want it. .

I am sure there are a hundred other ways to do this. Not all of them involve just kids. They all involve ways to get more people in not shut them out. Yes the times are a changin. It is our task to figure out how to change with them so we can keep our hobby alive.

We have a fellow up here in NY that has a very nice Crosley. I believe it's a pick-up. His name eludes me for now,lol.

[DAVE A]

We have a fellow up here in NY that has a very nice Crosley. I believe it's a pick-up. His name eludes me for now,lol.]

Well, we have a number of Crosley owners in New York and I can think of about a half dozen with pickups. Jim Oliver of E. Syracuse has a particularly fine bright red 47. That is a pretty active Region of the National Club, in fact, their regional meet was this past weekend in East Bethany.

[Larry Schramm]

I let people, especially the kids sit up in my truck. They get a big thrill out of that and the parents love taking pictures. Just watch that they are careful.

[Guest dokks6t9]

We have a fellow up here in NY that has a very nice Crosley. I believe it's a pick-up. His name eludes me for now,lol.]

Well, we have a number of Crosley owners in New York and I can think of about a half dozen with pickups. Jim Oliver of E. Syracuse has a particularly fine bright red 47. That is a pretty active Region of the National Club, in fact, their regional meet was this past weekend in East Bethany.

It's a bright green pick-up. He lives in Williamson, and attends the Marion Antique gas engine show with it.And if I may add, a nice guy...

[Jim Bollman]

It's a bright green pick-up. He lives in Williamson, and attends the Marion Antique gas engine show with it.And if I may add, a nice guy...

That's me and it is a Crosley FarmOroad with pickup box.

[Guest Skyking]

If you want to see a kid smile, let him/her sit in a Metropolitan........they love it!

[DAVE A]

It's a bright green pick-up. He lives in Williamson, and attends the Marion Antique gas engine show with it.And if I may add, a nice guy...

I should have known. When you said Williamson, that gave it away. Jim is one of the Crosley owners that really gets his vehicle out and shows it.

[Bill Stoneberg]

Kids can sit in my 47 with no issues but what I really like are the old folks who had one as a kid, they get in and you can tell they recognize the feel and the fit. One lady got in the back seat and when she camo out she was blushing and comme3nted to her husband about their first child being concieved in the back seat.

Too much information for me....

[Guest dokks6t9]

You got it right...

[Guest dokks6t9]

I should have known. When you said Williamson, that gave it away. Jim is one of the Crosley owners that really gets his vehicle out and shows it.

Ha ha. That's why I said "Williamson".I figured it would click,lol.