Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Why I do this, how it all began, a wandering post.

Why do I do it, where did it all begin? I spend hours each day working on this blog. I don't get paid for it, despite the Google ads you see, it's not for any money. It's a love of cars, especially Ford cars.

As a young boy I had a huge amount of Matchbox, Hotwheels and Corgi cars. I would play for hours on the floor, usually with my brothers, but sometimes alone. I've always had a preferance for Ford cars, even as a child. Don't get me wrong, I had others too, like everyone, I had Masseratie and VW toys. But my favorites were always the Mustangs and Cougars.

I would spend my schooldays daydreaming, wishing I could design the next big hit car. Not unlike many boys my age, I'd be dreaming of chrome wheels and swoopy lines, while I was supposed to be learning about the Crusades or Algebra. Now looking back, if I had paid more attention to Algebra, maybe I would be in Dearborn.
All my books had doodles of cars, and even in high school, I would spend study hall figuring out what my dream car would look like, what powertrain it would have, and of course what would I call it. You may not believe this, I don't really care if you do, but my dream car was called the Puma. Funny that 10 years after I left school Ford did actually build a car called the Puma. Mine was going to be a range of cars also, with 4-6&8 cyl versions with front or all wheel drive. I can't draw a straight line or a circle, even after taking Studio Art in school, but I would endlessly draw and color my Pumas, as well as list specs under each drawing. I was shocked last year when I discovered that Ford built a Puma in Europe. But don't get me wrong, I have no delusions that someone stole my notebook from high school.

So now at almost 41 what do I do? I blog, and I collect Johnny Lightning diecast cars, as well as Matchbox and HotWheels. I don't work in the auto industry, the closest I came was when I was in college, and it was time for an Internship, I set up a program with the local Ford Motor Credit office and my school. I transferred to a different school before that was supposed to begin, so I never actually took part in it, but I know that for a while it did go on.

So there it is the story of one frustrated car designer, who still plays with toy cars. Well, actually I don't play with them anymore, you'd have to take them out of the package, and that would make my $1.77 find valueless, especially if I paid $6 at a swapmeet.

So if you read one of my posts on Splogs or whatever and wonder why I get upset that someone would do that, you can realize that I do this because I love to, not because I get paid. It's my way of doodling on cars, considering I can't draw. I strongly urge others to do the same, it's fun and it's free, and to misquote Mike Tyson; "It keeps me from killing Y'all!"

Have a great day

1 comment:

Big Ford Fan said...

JD, good to hear from you. I wasn't quite that ambitious, I wanted just a range of compact cars under the blue oval. But I'm sure that many boys and men dream similar to the way we did.