Driving at night, on a long stretch of highway, can be either the most lonely thing in the world, or the most incredible moment in a life. Maybe it depends on the car, and some seem more suited for this than others, but it certainly depends on the mood of the driver. Attitude is probably more than half the battle in almost any given situation, but the car can certainly help.
It’s one thing to be in between one place and another, driving across a desert, farmland, plains, or near the ocean, but quite another to be moving through the world with romantic dreams in your head . That’s the stuff of teenage angst and hope, and it’s a kind of moment that can repeat all through a life. Learning how to take care of a car is something that you can pick up later on as well, and driving that car, the one you’re fixing yourself, is a pretty particular feeling.
Holing up for a night with the Oldsmobile Regency repair manual may not be the perfect evening for some people, but when you’re getting into mechanical worlds, it can be close to paradise. The gears start to make sense, and the systems start to put themselves together in your mind, and suddenly, there are metaphors that tie the car to an old relationship, a sentimental time, or a mood that’s come and gone and is coming back again.
When the car does become a thing of romantic dreams, then Chiltons books become the love stories. All the great songs about cars are really songs about someone who got away, and maybe that’s where it all comes together. Perhaps when we’re out driving in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night, we’re looking for traces of that one, the one who.