[Chevelle-List] RE: Went to Car Show

[Cecil \"Steve\" Martin]

“I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends A chance to share old memories and “show our cars again” …..But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well You see, you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself”                                                   Ricky Nelson 1972   *Stepping up on soap box*   Sometimes the way people think about fairness and what’s right really disappoints me. I used to coach a youth softball team for years. The things that adults would do to win really amazed and disappointed me. I never could see the point in winning if you had to cheat to do it. To me it would be a hollow victory that would mean less than losing when I had to live with what it took to get it. This is not to mention what they were teaching the kids and the way things would carry into the future. I am really disappointed in mankind at times. I had hoped our civilized culture had risen to a point where what’s right and decent is what matters most. I know that is not yet true though.   I haven’t started my frame-off yet, but if the corruption exists in judging like I am hearing, then I guess I won’t even bother to enter my car in those types of things and will just enjoy it for myself. Those individuals that like what I have done will say so and the rest can have their opinion as well. I guess what I am saying is that I don’t feel the need to have someone else judge what I have done. I am not doing it for them.   But I can see maybe a competition where the attendees vote, as in Chevell-abration. Assuming all is on the up and up there. I will attend my first one this year…I hope. Still, to win a trophy is not why I am doing it. The trophy is the car to me. Knowing that it’s mine and that I had a lot to do with what it looks like and can do.   As with the judging thing, to me doing the work myself is going to be a big part of what I am after in the pride when it’s done. I am even taking a welding class and reading books on how to do things. Things I never knew how to do before I will attempt to do, and that will be part of the overall experience.   In a way I envy those that can afford to pay to have their car professionally restored, or buy one that was already done. But in another way, I would look at a car that was at least semi-restored by the owner, or at least maintained/modified by him with a whole different admiration and respect. A man that puts his own “blood, sweat and tears” into his pride and joy feels something completely different than a guy that buys another’s work I would think? These guys are the real winners in my book and they feel it every time they look at their trophy of a car I am sure.   The real “Losers” are the guys that get a trophy that means nothing because their buddy voted for them. They think it means one thing, when the rest of the world knows it means another.   *Stepping down from soap box*                                                                                     Steve