Re: [Chevelle-List] RE: Went to Car Show

[jason pollock]

Title: Re: [Chevelle-List] RE: Went to Car Show

on 4/30/02 8:48 PM, Cecil "Steve" Martin at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

�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

respect
jason