Cars and randomness

I just saw a shitty old car.

Hardly a rare sight, you say. You live in Canada, where winter salt and thrift cause these sorts of things.

And yet this fascinated me, because it wasn't an ordinary sight. When I see shitty cars, I don't notice them, because they're so common... hordes of Tempos, Topazes, countless early 90s Japanese models and the occasional K-Car.

But this car, this junker, rusted on the trunk and flying from its bent antenna what appeared to be the skin of something it had ran over, was different. It was a car from the 50s. I'd love to tell you what it was, but since I know so very little about cars, I can't. Hudson Hornet comes to mind, mainly because it looked like Paul Newman in Cars.

This isn't Cuba, and that seemed weird. Whenever I see a car like that, it's usually all polished and restored, with an Antique Auto plate slapped on it and a very proud old man rolling around in the driver's seat.

Thus such a car begs many questions. Did you steal it from an old barn? Are there any bodies in the trunk? What drugs do you sell to keep the thing fueled?

On the topic of shitty cars, there seems to be so many of them. There must be something to it. I laugh at Tempos like any red blooded human being, but the damn things are still running 20 years later. Think about how many cars must have came out around that time, and how many from that era do you see on the roads? Not as many as Tempos.

There must be a ceiling, however. The K-Car, once the uniform vehicle of sixteen year olds and the Poor, has been slowly dying out. Once, heards of them, shining blue and beige and rusting in the light, ran the highways and side streets of western civilization. But now, I'm excited when I see one, a flashback to my childhood. Mom had two of them, bought brand new. My aunt had one too, but it was one of the leper variety, held together with hay twine and halfhearted prayer.

It will be interesting twenty years from now what cars will fill this role. I'm putting my money on Kias.