Car Guy

I am a car guy.  I guess that is pretty obvious by the way I dress, my tattoos, the classes I am taking...  I was raised as a car guy.  My dad was and is a car guy, and he has always had friends that were car guys.  He made sure that he taught me everything that he could about cars.  How to work on them.  What looks good.  What cars are more difficult to own and work on.  So not only am I a car guy, I have a pretty specific taste in cars.  I love old cars.  The car I am driving now is a 1968 Ford Galaxie 500.  It is the oldest car I have ever owned, and even with the repairs here and there, I am glad I bought it.  The thing is, the reactions that people have toward me and my car are amazing.  Total strangers wave at me as I drive through town.  People will roll down their windows at stop lights to ask what year it is.  I have to try to be polite at gas stations because old car guys will follow me through the store and then outside wanting to discuss the Galaxie they owned when they were my age.  But I don't always get nice conversation or compliments about my taste in cars.  A few days ago I stopped at a convenience store, and as I was headed out, I saw that a lady in a Smart car had parked right next to me.  

Now if you have ever seen a Smart car, then I am sure you can imagine how ridiculously small and doofy the thing looked next to my enormous beast of a car.  I thought it looked hilarious, and started grinning right away.  The lady got out of her "car", and since she was looking at me, I nodded at her to be polite.  The next thing I knew, she looked me up and down, and then started telling me off.  "Do you have any idea what you are doing to the environment with that horrible car?"  I was so surprised at how hateful she was, that I said the first thing that popped into my head.  "Ummm, I am pretty sure I am making the environment cooler."  For some reason, that made her mad.  She said "That car uses too much gas, and who really needs a car that big?  Even with those of us who care about the environment doing our part, it will never work with people like you.  Cars like yours should be outlawed."  Now that kind of got on my nerves.  So I decided to be honest.  "Lady, I wouldn't be caught dead in a car that is smaller than my daughter's Power Wheel, and has less horsepower than a golf cart.  I could pick up your car and put it in my trunk and still have space for a gas can.  I will be driving this car, or cars like it, until I can't see well enough to pass a driver's test.  I don't care if gas ends up at 10.00 bucks a gallon."  She stomped off into the store, and I got into my real car, and left, half way between annoyed, and amused.

Over the weekend, gas went up to 3 dollars and 4 cents a gallon.  The convenience store lady said that her boss told her to expect 4 dollars a gallon by summer.  You know, my neighbor has a Honda for sale...