Hello listers,
It's great to finally contribute instead of asking yet another question.
I'm 28 years old; my wife is younger than I by a few months. We've owned our
74 MGB for a little over a year. Before we got married, we got to know some
of the people of the local car club (Chattanooga, TN) at a British Car show
in Townsend, TN. We started going to the meetings, and odds are we would be
the youngest people there. In fact, we're the same age as many of the club
members' children. Admittedly, that bothered me a bit at first. I love my
parents but when I'm around them I feel this adult/kid relationship, and
often feel the same way when I'm around any of their friends whom I might
have known for a long time. There is none of that in our club, though, as we
are treated as equals. They went so far as to elect my wife treasurer as
she's a CPA. I can't help but wonder if my generation is forsaking the joys
of older British car ownership because most of the people they see driving
them are older. I also think that alot of the younger automotive hobbyists
were born after the British sports cars were available new and common sights
on the streets. Their choices are more plentiful, cheaper, and most banks
will make easy loans for them. I had to put a few hours in at the office
Saturday morning, and decided to take the B to work. Our young female
security guard had no idea what marque the car was nor did she know its age.
I told her about it and she said she would keep an eye on it and that she
thought the tonneau cover was cute. Funny what some people notice. I'm not
saying that we should resign ourselves to the notion that our hobby could
die with us. But we must consider that every generation has defined itself
from the generations that came before, and that there are subcultures within
every generation. A man who tricked out Model A's in his youth could have
children that went for lead sleds, muscle cars, or foreign sports cars. Not
every young person drives a rice rocket, but that may become their defining
vehicle and the automotive legacy they leave behind. They'll form clubs
about it when they're older. It's probably up to people like me to bring in
fresh interest to our hobby, and I've done a poor job of it thus far. But
good affordable examples of the cars are getting harder to find.
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