There is little doubt that fathers play a big role in sons’ lives.
‘Fathers influence sons’ choices by their choices and the legacy includes everything from team loyalties to interest in the car hobby.’
Those of us who grew up in the baby boomer generation were probably the last generation to experience full buy-in from our fathers about the car hobby.
Our fathers’ generation was the first generation to experience the full impact of the car.
Long distance travel in a car opened up a new world for our fathers and they got from Point A to Point B faster every decade after the introduction of the iconic, affordable Model T. Our fathers got to experience the wonder of the automobile from its early pre-war days and we got to feed off their enthusiasm.
We as a generation popped up on the radar screen after World War Two when a massive celebration of peace broke out and restocked the population shelves in the Allied countries. The war effort had ended the evolution of the automobile from 1942 to ’45 and it took a few years for the car to progress beyond the early 40s engineering.
The Fifties were a decade of bold style and muscle for the automobile. Our fathers now had access to V-8 power and plenty of new freeways to use all those horses. Many of us then- very young baby boomers went along for the ride during the early years of fast cars and young dads behind the wheel of the road rockets.
The lesson took and we saw our fathers as the best drivers behind the wheel of the best cars on the road during those young impressionable years.
Later we watched and handed tools to our fathers when they tackled a mechanical problem on the family car or a project car. We developed a steadfast belief that our dads never met a car they couldn’t fix during our formative years as car guys.
Our fathers drew us into the car hobby and we were more than willing to go along for the ride. The sheer exhilaration they must have experienced when they rode in a car with their own fathers for the first time was not lost on us.
The brand new idea of a car was probably even more stunning to our fathers’ fathers. Our grandfathers’ sense of awe and respect for the automobile’s influence on a horse and buggy generation was not lost on our fathers.
Baby boomers were likely the first generation to take the car for granted because not all of us were as enamored with the romance of a car. Members of our generation were the first to treat the car as mere transportation, bereft of any role in our lives beyond a simple ability to transport us from Point A to Point B.
Somehow they lost the magic of the road and never embraced their fathers’ love for the car. Car guys feel sorry for them because they are the lost part of our generation.
‘The rest of us just want to thank our fathers for steering us down the right road when it comes to the car hobby.’
Jim Sutherland
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