It has been an incredible day here at the 2004 Woodward Dream Cruise.
Many a CC'er has been met, many a car been seen.
At about 10:00 a.m. I departed my friend's apartment and headed over to Woodward. I stopped at a car wash on the way on Main Street in Royal Oak. The cars on the streets were a wild amalgam of rods and relics, restored and rusted, foreign and (mostly)domestic.
I cruised Woodward till about 12:30p.m. Taking in the sights and sounds of big blocks and burnt rubber. At that point, I jetted over towards the I-75 expressway and met up with VDubMan2100 and his buddy and soon to be new CC member. After joining forces with the boys from the Buckeye State --Do they say that with pride down there? -- we headed up to Pontiac to the north end of the Woodward Dream Cruise and met up with Kach22i and knightfan2691 at the Monte Carlo club's corral. There we saw Roger Penske cruising in his Enzo! While he was stopped in traffic, Roger shared with me that it was the first time he had driven it. I assured him it wouldn't be the last.
After seeing RP and his Enzo and perusing various Monte's of all the generations, knightfan2691 stayed close to his beloved Monte Carlo and the rest of us took a walk through downtown Pontiac where a gaggle of auto's were on display. We took lots of pictures, but then we had to part with the Kach man due to his prior plans.
Piling into the GTO -- Woodward's original bastard child -- we headed south on the famous blvd. Soaking up the sights of the cars and the people, all in their own little glory. Each related to, and yet somehow obliviously disconnected from, the real traditions that earned Woodward the reputation that makes this event possible.
We arrived at the alley behind the Red Coat Tavern right at 4:00 p.m. due, in no small part, to the creative routes and back streets knowledge I possessed from another era. (In other words, I am getting old.)
After ordering the best burger in the metro Detroit area, with some unexpected guests -- The restaurant was so crowded, we had to share a table with the Grid4 girls, who were out promoting their line of cellular services.
We also had the opportunity to meet-up with vbadmin and Toolbox, at the Redwood, our expected guests, and enjoy a libation or two and chat about the Dream Cruise, CC and our mutual love of automobiles. It was real nice of those two to take the time out of their schedules and fit us in. I am really pleased to have met some of the staff from the magazine as well.
After dinner, unfortunately, vb had to depart, due to prior commitments. Toolbox stayed with the motley crue that we had assembled and we walked 13 mile to 14 mile on both sides of Woodward. Pictures just waiting to be taken were occurring all around us as the four of us kept pointing out to each other something else to be seen. The group had a comfortable and familiar dynamic and it was easy to see that our love for all the various vehicles had given each of us plenty of common ground on which to build.
After our walking tour, it was about 7:45 p.m. We left Toolbox at his vehicle and headed back to the GTO. Then we got on Woodward for one last drive south to the end of the cruise at the famous divider that 8 mile has become of late.
Then, as the end of the day drew nigh, we headed back to VDub's ride and I dropped them off at their car and sent them on their way back to the land of Buckeye.(?)
Now, I am here giving you this synopsis of the day's events. In order to keep the suspense building for the big payoff....
Pictures. Lots.
VDub and I will be posting pictures we took at the event. I will try to create something that is chronological, in order to better illustrate the day as it occurred. VDub hopes to get a few shots up tonight. Mine won't start occurring on the boards until tomorrow at the earliest. I want to thank each and every one of you who reads this blog. I will be writing a column on the event and putting it up either tomorrow or Monday.
Yesterday was three decades away.
It was there that I first sat on my father's lap and drove the old Pontiac. It was there, with my Mom driving, we set our stomach's all aflutter on our trips to my Meme's apartment over those "bumps" on Coolidge. An automotive love was fostered into my personality during those years. A love of maps and far away places grew right along side. I would always dream of trips in exotic vehicles, usually closely related to my favorite Hot Wheel of the moment, to some new destination on whatever map I could get someone to bring me from their travels. The map from France was my most prized of all my maps. I still have it.
Yesterday, I traveled all of those roads again. The streets I ran as a child, I was free to run again. Things there, counter to my romantic hued memories, hadn't really changed all that much from my days living there. One house I had lived in looked shabbier and the other was fixed up. The neighborhoods, overall, remained in the general state of disrepair that I seem to remember. When I went to visit my sister's ex-husband, he wasn't home. I was morbidly relieved, as I had never set foot in his house since my father had passed there of a sudden heart attack 7 years ago. I really didn't know if I had wanted to go inside or not. My relief at not finding Bernie home seems to indicate that I am still not ready for a casual cup of coffee there.
I couldn't help but feel as if I was at home again, yet, somehow, homeless also describes how I felt. I am quite comfortable saying I know I don't belong there anymore. I remember all of the street names, what with my love of maps and all, but I couldn't tell you where a spray off car wash is as the one I used to use is gone and I had to ask for directions, somewhat poorly given, to find one.
When first I understood the true meaning of nostalgia, it was June 28th 1996. I was in the Motor city to attend a KISS concert. Their first concert with make-up in 20+ years was opening at Tiger stadium. KISS was a huge band to me in my childhood, but I was too young to go see them when they were popular in the 70's. They were opening at Tiger stadium because KISS always felt Detroit audiences were the greatest in the world and loved to put on their tours starting in Detroit. When watching that concert I was struck silly by the idea that I was seven or eight years old again. The feelings of excitement were as if carved out of long forgotten recesses of my mind. It was visceral and real and transforming in the way my whole mind was completely taken to another era in time. That feeling had never occurred to me before that concert that day.
I had that feeling hooked up on an intravenous tube all weekend.
I couldn't help but get visions and flashes of memories of another time as I looked at various things in and around the Woodward corridor. I can remember disjointed thoughts and occurrences just by a glance at a familiar feature or landmark. I am struck at how these trivial, memories forgotten, are suddenly more real to me than I could have ever known possible.
As is my wont, I wonder to myself what is the message behind all of this memory overload. I can't help but feel the bygone memories mark more than just the passing of time to me. I am also feeling a transition within me as to how I perceive it. The transitory nature of things, everything is different, yet nothing has changed. I realize, something has changed. The perceiver.
Me.
I realize that the lenses I see this world through now are only somewhat related to the lenses I once saw the world through. I know, that nothing really has changed except my own perceptions.
All of this has conspired in me to take a certain stock of where my life has taken me. My own personal "There and Back Again." I can't help but think about things, as I am driving around my childhood in my mind, in an automobile I would have but dreamed of owning when I was a child. I knew that, as I had perceived things back then, I had "made it."
Yet I found I was left wondering to myself what it is, exactly, I had made?
Though I hadn't quite come up with the answer to that question as of the end of the Dream Cruise, I know I was sure having fun trying to hunt down it's correct reply. If I find it, I will let you know. In the meantime, happy hunting in your own personal search for the answers to the mysteries of the mind.
