The cloudless day was perfect, with temps in the low eighties and a westerly breeze ever so gently brushing against our faces as we sat on our deck enjoying a chilled bottle of summer white wine. Our plantings on our deck railings and along its borders were in one last spectacular explosion of color before the inevitable advance of fall, bringing with it the lessoning of sunlight and the lowering of temperatures. It was a very lazy late Friday afternoon that just lends itself to reflecting back on our recent spring and summer MG trips. Sometimes reflections of past MG adventures are almost as good as when you actually experienced them. To savor once again what was a very enjoyable time keeps the memory of it alive.
Driver: “This has been one heck of a driving season for us. It’s been years since we traveled so much in those MGs. Let’s see, we traveled 400 miles each way in our T to attend a GOF in New Hampshire in late May. Then we attended MG 2008 in our B in our backyard at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania the end of June. But the best was our last outing at GT-33 at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania in our A in July. We put over twelve hundred miles on the A as we journeyed first out to Columbus, Ohio to visit long time friends before heading eastward to the GT. We say it every year, but those GTs just keep getting better.”
Navigator: “We really had some good times with good MG friends, and we saw a lot of MGs. I made an album about our adventures so we can relive our travels. Now I need your help with places and names for the captions.”
Driver: “Am I in some kind of ‘Ground Hog Day’ scenario or something? We go through this sacrificial ordeal every year. You make an album complete with captions, and it ends up on a shelf on a bookcase in our family room. Listen, when we finally reach the end of our MG road, all those albums, and I might remind you that we are presently at forty-two and counting, will find their way to a dumpster along with most of our other possessions that our kids do not want.”
Navigator: “Listen, Mr. Optimist, we haven’t reached the end of our MG road yet, and I still derive great pleasure out of creating those albums, and you know in that somewhat empty soul of yours that you enjoy looking at those albums every so often. Besides, with my new electronic camera picture taking, editing and printing has never been easier. Now, what car show is this picture of and what kind of MG is in the background, and who the heck are those two people standing next to me?”
Have you ever people watched at car shows? We do it all the time. We always make a lap around the show field, vote and then try to find some shade and just relax. In between eating lunch and quaffing a few cold ones with our NAMGAR friends, we get the biggest kick out of just watching car show spectators. In fact, we have classified car show spectators into specific groups. There’s the “wannabes”, the “technocrats”, the “gabbers”, the “nesters” and the “wanderers.” Just who makes up these car show spectator groups, and can you identify with one of them?
The “wannabes” are spectators who do not own an MG but know exactly what kind they would want to own. They will narrow the car show field down to one MG that absolutely matches their dream car and then spend the rest of the afternoon taking pictures of it and questioning the owners if they perchance wander over to get something out of the cockpit. Then, and you just know this is coming, asking the owners if it is OK to sit in it and to take their photo.
The “technocrats” are the spectators that are restoring an MG and critique every nut and bolt on every car. They take literally hundreds of pictures of engine compartments, dash panels and panel fits. Heaven only knows if they’re ever going to finish their restoration project but sure as heck they’re absolute experts at exactly how every wire should be placed and how every bolt should be facing.
The “gabbers” are quasi spectators that are at the car show because not attending was never offered as an option. They’re walking around, talking about baseball, family, romance novels, politics and where to go for dinner in between applying enormous amounts of sun screen to their exposed body parts. They usually travel in groups of three of the same gender and are always facing away from the cars.
The “nesters” are the true husband/wife masochists of our hobby. They always arrive early at the car show. They always detail polish their MG with each partner having specific jobs to do. They always have color coordinated outfits along with color coordinated lawn chairs and a real picnic basket. They camp out next to or behind their car in the hot blazing sun for the entire car show, and they love talking about their car to anybody within earshot. Everything reaches critical mass when some “wannabes” come in contact with some “nesters”.
The last general grouping of car show spectators is the “wanderers”. This grouping never sits or stands still for one moment. They are usually individuals that make endless rounds of the show field, always moving and never stopping. They’re much too busy to vote, heck they’re too busy to even converse amongst “wannabes”, “nesters” or “technocrats”. The food and parts vendors pray for these kinds of spectators. Heck, probably twenty-five percent of their profit is due to these “wanderers” continuously feeding their faces and purchasing MG paraphernalia.
Navigator: “Well, we got the captions all roughed out. Now all I have to do is word process them and then put them under the pictures, and the album will be done. It was fun reliving our experiences and the people we met.”
Driver: “Fun, if that’s fun then I’d hate to see what you think torture is. Heck, you’ve been to one car show, you’ve been to them all.”
Navigator: “If that’s the case, then why do you continue to attend car shows? Could it be that you are chasing those ever elusive windmills that others refer to as trophies?”
Driver: “I have not in the past, am not currently or will I ever be actively engaged in attempting to collect pewter. I, or should I say we, attend car shows because we like the MGs.”
Navigator: “Listen Mr. Pewter, your answer sounds like you’re testifying before some government committee investigating car shows. Beam yourself back to earth, Scotty, there’s no intelligent life dwelling in that object on top of your shoulders.”
Driver: “Alright already. Hey, you know something? I think that we’ve stumbled onto another class of car show spectators. I think we’ll name them the ‘namgarists’. This class of spectators goes to car shows to be with other NAMGAR people; the MGs are just a reason to get you there. It’s the people that are the real show.”
Navigator: “Somehow you managed to spin yourself out of that windmill business. You haven’t lost any of that BS that you threw around for thirty-five years when you were working.”
Driver: “Yes, dear, thanks, I think?” ◊