As the world turns

Am I the only one who used to have to watch soap operas with his mother rather than cartoons, because that was what she wanted to do?

As I write this, I'm sitting in a hotel in Oklahoma City. I'll give you a minute to find that on a map. Ok City is a wholly different world than where I come from. Yes, people live here, but their view of life in general differs a bit from my own. This is significant only because of all the interesting things going on in the world.

As I write this, we are in a time of significant financial upheaval. The stock market is taking the pipe, people's nest eggs are being scrambled, banks are failing and the financial sky is falling. Hopefully, the country's financial situation will have stabilized by the time you read this.

Gas prices, which were pushing $5 per gallon earlier this year, have moderated a bit. In Chicago, they were down to nearly $4 a gallon. Not as good as the $3.29 we saw in New Jersey as we left the Grand National or the $3.07 at the station I can see across from my hotel. However, this trend gives me hope that maybe I can afford to drive my cars for other than absolutely essential trips (CLC meetings count, by the way).

By the time you read this, the presidential election results should be known. Does anybody remember a time before the campaign for this election started? In Illinois, we got a few campaign ads, mostly for local candidates.

In my travels over the past few months, I have had occasions to visit so-called "battleground states." The number of campaign ads they were subjected to was absolutely numbing. Some of the commercial breaks had the presidential candidates' ads back to back; some were even back to back to back. I hope it's over by now.

The current financial situation has put the automotive industry in a world of hurt. Industry trends show industry sales are down as much as 34 percent. Fortunately, domestic manufacturers haven't been hurt as badly as some imports. General Motors, in its 100th year, seems to be better off than many. I hope that is a good sign that the dire predictions about the auto industry are being quashed.

Every time the economy slips a bit or gas prices rise a bit, the pundits predict the demise of the automobile. Some of them predict, and urge the demise of collector cars and deride those of us who engage in car collecting. Each time, we emerge, sometimes bruised, but we emerge.

Thankfully, there is a circle of life. Hopefully, all this turmoil shall pass, again, and we can get back to what passes for normality.

Excuse me, while I ponder how to convince Mrs. Brown that we should watch collector car auctions rather than old Bogart movies when I get home.

Happy Motoring!

-Glenn