Another Beautiful Day

I've never had an open roadster, but they are so fun to see. One of these just drove by my house. I heard a lovely engine noise purring along, and had to look, and this was what I saw. Isn't it cute? I used to want one of these, but having had a few interesting old British cars, I'm now more interested in having interesting old motorcycles, mostly British, but I like lots of kinds.

Do you wonder what interesting cars I've had? Well, let's start with me being a kid and living at home with Mom and Dad and The Brothers. My Dad did Not buy an MG/TD. After that, he Did buy, 3 (I think it was 3) Morris Minors. The first car I ever drove was a Morris Minor. Aren't they adorable? Dad bought several fascinating cars. Most impressive to me was the 1960 MKII Jaguar sedan. Oh! That was so pretty, even the engine was beautiful! He bought a 1950-something Porsche, I can never remember if it's 1957 or 1958. I got to drive it when the Jaguar was in the shop. And when I wasn't driving either of those, I got to drive a 1964 Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors. I could see exactly where the 4 corners of the car were. I now see how horribly wasteful it was, when all 5 of us could fit in a Morris Minor (tight quarters with 3 teenagers in the back seat) to travel around in the Lincoln. I think he'd gotten rid of all the Morrises by then. (He didn't ask me for permission). I guess he was tired of paying insurance on so many cars. But that Lincoln only seemed to get about 4 miles to the gallon. Might as well have been driving a bus! One of his funnest cars, and one I never got to drive, was a DKW. That was a super-cutie.

I would have liked a 2CV, but never got one. HH and I ended up buying Dad's Jaguar, which we sold when money was tight. Later, things picked up, and HH bought the cutest little Metropolitan, a 1957. It went well with his 1957 Chevy pickup, which he still has. No, it's not a Comanche. He also got an early 60's though I've forgotten the year now, Studebaker Avanti. Was it from 1964? Might have been. Is that three? No, I'm leaving out the 1949/50 (Oh, Dear! Was it a Mk IV or a Mk V? It was a Jaguar sedan and had suicide doors, too. It was so cute! But what good were all those cute old cars when they were just a lot of work and broke all the time, except the Metropolitan, which HH decided was unsafe for DD. What a fun car that was! But mostly, it's fun to see old cars in the possession of Other People.

Yesterday I got a card in the mail with my name on it that says I'm a member in an antique motorcycle club. Isn't that fun? I'm sort of in two of them, because I get tag-along benefits of HH's memberships. It's more fun to own old motorcycles than it is to own old cars, and they're more fun to fix when they break, and they don't take up so much room, and they're more fun to use. And they aren't all old. And we meet very interesting people. I know, some people like boats, and some people like airplanes, and some people like cars, but we like motorcycles.