Look what showed up in my rear-view
Quebec City, QC, July 2011
Click photo to embiggen
Like many children with better things to do during elementary school classes, I doodled in the back of my notebook. More often than not, I'd sketch cars. Not Corollas or Chevettes, mind you, but low, wedge-like shapes that had zero everyday practicality and limitless appeal to a 10-year-old boy.
To this day, the mere sight of an exotic or a near-exotic is enough to turn my head. Our kids seem to have inherited the head-turning gene, for after we parked near this Audi R8 (V10!) on our way to dinner, they silently walked toward this otherworldly piece of engineering and drank it in. Unlike the three-row, relatively fuel efficient and eminently affordable vehicle we arrived in, this one costs more than some houses, uses enough gas to make a Saudi sheikh's day - or year - and has about enough cargo space for a couple of sticks of gum.
But none of that mattered to the munchkins on this night. The car was special. The moment they shared was special, too, because dreaming about beautiful and impractical things is as much a touchstone of childhood today as it was a generation ago. So I quietly hung back and tried to save a few frames through my lens.
Your turn: What exotic and usually unattainable things did you dream about as a kid?
One more thing: I shot this while on vacation. If you've shot something while on vacation, as well, go here.
I'm with you Carm - fast cars! I had a subscription (at the time) to Road & Track magazine, kept every issue in chronological order in a carefully selected box, and of course cut out the full page photos of the 911s, 308s (Magnum's car - still the best) and Lambos (see Cannonball Run) for the bedroom wall.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I also dreamt of front row (nose on the glass) tickets to a hockey game. Sadly, in Toronto, that's equally unattainable.
Very nice! :)
ReplyDeleteCars. BIKES with engines ! Aeroplanes.
ReplyDeleteAll of them ! Ah, you got me nostalgic
Travel was incredibly exotic to me as a child. There was one girl in our class whose father was an airline pilot and she had been to places like FIji on holiday. None of the rest of us had been out of New Zealand. These days, everyone seems to take overseas holidays all the time, although I am still probably one of the least travelled people I know.
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