A Very Good Year

When I was 17, it was a very good year.  “Sounds like words from a very old song”  But, for me, these words are true for several reasons.
That’s the year my mom came home with a new Mustang. It was a white 66 coupe, with 289 V8 and automatic transmission. It was late enough into the year that the 67 models were already starting to hit the dealerships, so they probably got it for a good price. Though I had been driving on the highways for about three years, getting an occasional chance to drive the new Mustang was quite a treat.  A high school friend of mine already had a 65 convertible, so I was already a fan.
It was some time during that year that I saw the first 67 Shelby GT 500’s.  It was love at first sight. I must have spent over an hour walking around those cars, admiring them from every angle, and memorizing every beautiful detail.   The 67 Shelby GT 500 remains my favorite Mustangs to this day.

The 67 Shelby GT 500 has been my favorite Mustang for over 50 years.  (Twitter photo)

The Year of the Tiger

No, it’s not this year, but I was born in the “year of the tiger” 1950.  According to Chinese astrology, your year repeats every 12 years. The next tiger year is 2022.
I first became familiar with the Chinese zodiac signs about 20 years ago, and did a lot of reading on the subject at the time. Looking back across my life, I was amazed at the significance of the life events that have happened in the “tiger” years all through my life.
The first was 1962, I was 12 years old, and spent the summer with my grand parents in Pennsylvania.     All the young neighbor girls would spend the afternoons listening to music on their porches. It was a real awakening in my life.  I discovered the popular rock music of the era, which is some of my favorite to this day.  And, girls.  All of a sudden, I started noticing girls in a completely different way.  That “year of the tiger”  changed my life.
Looking back through the years, major life changing events have happened in every tiger year.  I had not thought of these things in years, until a interesting tiger photo caught my eye last week, and I started looking into it again.  What I discovered was amazing. The last tiger year, I hadn’t even realized, also held major life changing events.  Now, I’m looking forward to 2022 with much anticipation.

The tiger photo that caught my eye last week.  ( Twitter photo )

The Eyes of a Car Guy

We have all heard the term “car guy” used all our lives, many times referring to ourselves. I know I have used it many times to describe my own personality to people I meet.
Most people would assume that meant we are people who like cars, and that is true, but many people may not have any comprehension of what that really means, or just how far that goes.
When a real car guy looks at a car, it doesn’t just mean that a car was flashy enough to get noticed, though many times that may be part of it, but often it goes much deeper than that. Especially when it’s something truly unique, or we have a deeper understanding of the car’s mechanical attributes and performance capabilities.  It’s not just a visual image, but our mind is in hyper drive, reviewing all the things that make that car something special to us.
That’s why some images we have seen thousands of times never are enough. Our mind could find something more to love every time, through the eyes of a car guy.
For more of my "car guy" past, check out my book at: Grab Some Gears

Timeless excellence, in the eyes of a car guy.