It never fails - driving a classic car always attracts attention. When I stop for gas people often come up and comment on the car, and share memories of the same model they once knew. It's part of the fun. But there's one question that never fails to come up, and it has always bothered me, even though I know better, and try to take it better, still it irks me, gets right under my skin.
"You gonna ree-store that?"
And worse, if I'm at my place and a visitor looks over the fence and sees several of my cars at once, there's an even worse but similar question:
"You ever restore any of those?"
Now, I get what they're asking. They're sharing enthusiasm and interest. I should take it in that spirit. But when I have worked long and hard to bring a car back from extinction, haul it out of the woods and put wheels on, install a new drivetrain, fix the electricals, repair the body, give it a chance for another life on the road, it just sounds like an insult. I have to hold myself back from saying something nasty back -
"WHaddya think I've been doing all this time?"
"Is this not good enough yet?"
"You mean spend three times the value of the car on a cosmetic restoration?"
or, what I'm thinking:
"You mean 'Chevy it'?"
No matter what I say, it always turns into a bitter exchange. I know better - it would be better to not even talk to anybody. But that way lies madness, and turning into a bitter old man I'd rather not be.
Recently I heard a couple of even worse things - when a guy got really excited, that my cars were 'barn finds' as though he had discovered them and I was just sitting around doing nothing.
And worst of all, being accused of 'hoarding'. Honestly that hurts the most - and it's a fair question, because we all know owners who refuse to sell a car and it slowly disintegrates. That's not happening with my cars - they're on pavement, clean, and slowly coming together. Every single one of them is better than when it arrived, and I'm proud of the progress. But somehow people find it necessary to challenge me as though I'm doing something wrong, as though it would have beam better to leave them in the woods to rot.
I know better. I don't really care so much what other people think. But it still bugs me, either I chew on their comments for days, or get snappy and say something rude and then chew on my own rude comments for days.
Has anyone else come up with any better response, that sends the conversation in a positive direction?
