Had a must enjoyable day on Sunday, my dad and I took the green truck (Chevrolet, C10, 1970, long bed with step sides) down to the local car show. It isn’t actually ‘just’ a local show, it is open to everyone with about 500 cars participating, no awards; one can see some really unusual things there, which are there just for the sake of it; it’s more of a ‘car appreciation’ event than a ‘show’.

The green truck required chasing out the mice and inflating the tires; I didn’t even have time to wash it.  It is essentially stock, a working truck. The last time we had it out was to collect trash for the land trust. The thing is though that the show illustrated several variants: work, show, modified, museum.

A work truck is never modified for the sake of modification nor for aesthetics. If it runs, it runs. If it is modified, it is modified to make it more usable: adding a tow hitch, changing the mirrors, the shifter, the angle of the brake pedal. Show is restored to what it would have looked like on the show room floor.  Ideally, the serial numbers match, but more importantly it looks like it just rolled off the floor. Modified is the hot rod: hot rods are modified for use, but the use is essentially a luxury concept. Hot rods are toys, toys a few people can make a living off of, but toys nonetheless. Museum is restored but only if it doesn’t erase what has happened to it.  Work and museum tend to overlap; but the museum piece is frozen, no more change can occur.

Or something along those lines, which are all easily erased, challenged, and ignored!