In the '80's, I took my '66 Dodge Coronet to a show every weekend from the end of April until the end of October, hit all the cruise nights, and cruised the local strip. Had a great time doing that.
After coming back from three years in Germany in 1992, all that had changed somehow. When I was in Germany, my wife and I were the only Americans in a German US car club that had maybe 40 members. If it was an American car, it was welcomed! Big Caprice wagons, early '80's Montes and Grand Prix, my Dodge pickup, and a '56 Chrysler New Yorker, among many others. We just had fun as friends that happened to have American cars! Our club went to an all-American car show in EAST Germany after the fall of the wall in 1990, and we were the only Americans there out of over 800 cars and trucks! We met people from all over western Europe, and many from Eastern Europe and even Russia, all with their American cars. Even got followed by the East German Volkspolizei (vopos) for a couple of days...could've been the US forces tags on my truck, hmmm? But that whole trip was an unbelievable amount of fun, and made my wife and I very grateful to be Americans. Especially after meeting a few Russian troops on their weekend pass in the city we were visiting!!! Poor bastards hadn't been paid in several months, uncertainty reigned as to what they were going to do next as Russians, and they were selling their uniforms, rifles, and whatever else people would buy, just to eat! Think about that next time you think Americans have things bad, it sucks here, etc!
But these days, I go to maybe three shows a year. I like participating in car club activities that don't involve a lot of waxing the car and sitting around thinking "I better get a trophy!" or some such garbage. I own the cars and trucks I like, and when one goes to shows, there is always the [censored] with some stupid comment that ruins the day. Our Hudson chapter is part of the national club. We don't do judged shows with our cars. We just go, display them, talk about them, drive them, buy and sell parts, and just enjoy ourselves. None of the judging BS, no trophies, no stress, no worrying about if the car has the original air in the tires, none of that crap. And that's fun!!! My philosophy on judged shows and trophies is: If you need to walk away with a trophy that bad, go buy yourself one!!!
I take my cars and trucks out to enjoy them for me. If someone else happens to like my cars and trucks, cool. If not, too bad for them.
Car shows suck these days, for the most part, with the 5,000 watt noise systems pumping out what passes for music these days ruining the day for everyone else, why put up with that nonsense?
