Family Tradition

Since as long as I can remember I have been attending the Auto Boat Speed Show with my father. When I was young we would make it a family affair. My brothers and I would squish into the backseat of the car (these were the days before third row seating) and head off. In my younger years my first attraction was always the color of the car. Now that I have many years under my belt I can appreciate other more sophisticated attributes of these custom automobiles. The picture above is of a Model T done by a friend of my brothers. This brings me to another aspect of these car shows...we literally can't walk more than 3 steps with out my Dad knowing someone. This usually leads to AT LEAST a 5 minute conversation about the cars at the show and daily life. Realistically it's more like a 10 to 15 minute conversation. So as you can imagine we are at the show pretty much all day.
In my teenage years my brothers were usually off doing something "more important" so I would go with my Dad alone. These memories will be some of my favorites with my dad. These are also the years that I learned the most about the custom cars. Yesterday I noticed my young nieces asking my Dad and their own Dad some of the same questions I use to ask. It was really fun to see them learning about cars the way that I did.
Now that I am an adult the Auto Boat Speed Show is once again a family affair. Both of my brothers, their kids, and both sets of grandparents piled into 3 cars and enjoyed the show together. The days of my brothers and I squished into the backseat are now over. It is nice that our city still hosts shows like this to allow families to spend the day together over something they enjoy. For my family, cars are something that we enjoy and to the day I die I will always love the smell of a greasy garage.