Thinking 1970s, Living in a New Century

I suppose some of the predominant and recurring memories I've had during this seminar are of my old 1975 Dodge Dart Swinger. Though by today's standards it would be considered a fishing trawler, in '75 it was actually an economy car. My great aunt in New Hampshire bought it brand new, and I remember her driving me around in it as a kid. Years later, when she was too old to drive, I bought it for $300 and fixed it up. I drove it as my exclusive vehicle for the next eight years. It had the infamous Dodge "slant-6" engine; one of the best and most reliable commercially produced American motors of all time. I'll never forget that car. It ran smooth and quiet, like a Singer sewing machine. It averaged a respectable 20 miles to the gallon. It rarely broke down, and when it did, it was easy to fix. I loved driving it. The big wide black vinyl bench seats were like sitting on your living room couch. I loved the smooth slide of the automatic column shifter when you put it into gear, the punch forward when you stepped on the gas, the incomparable way the steering wheel spun with well-oiled ease as only 1970s power steering systems seemed able to provide. I loved cruising around in it at night, with the high-low beam switch sticking out of the left-side floorboard. The dashlights glowed a nostalgic yellow-green, and if you fiddled with the solid-state AM radio dial, you could tune that little orange vertical bar in to obscure oldies stations as nearby as Newburyport, Mass. or Boston -- or as far away as New York City or Prince Edward Island, Canada. At night, the airwaves light up, as any HAM radio operator will tell you, and there were times the songs coming out of that green-glowing radio shone like the bright, crisp stars overhead while I blasted down back roads in the wee hours.

This is part of why, perhaps, I found this last set of readings and Web browsings so thought-provoking. My '75 Dart wasn't your stereotypical seventies gas-guzzling battleship -- after all, it was of the first generation of cars to be equipped with a catalytic converter, and was only a six cylinder in a time when eight was more or less the industry standard. I will always long for and lust after "classic" cars. I vow to own one again someday -- yes, with all the 1970s disregard for air pollution, energy conservation, and highway safety "grandfathered" right in there -- but at the same time we're in a new century with a vast array of new, and in some cases not so new but improved, technologies. We would be sadly remiss not to utilize them. A pair of British scientists just created a new carbon-based battery that recharges itself using oxygen. They hope to have it on the market within five years. This is just one example. We should all be looking at alternatives and advances in science, up to and including even the speculative, such as the theories of Nikola Tesla and "free energy."

I'm especially intrigued by "tribrids" and also compressed air cars -- these seem to be the most promising at the moment. Some of the past experiments, such as the 1957 Studebaker-Packard Astral, remind me of the old sixties TV show, Land of the Giants. Energy conservation and environmental protection are serious topics, I realize, but these past experiments are nothing if not sheer fun.

I do not share the apocalyptic view expressed by U-Winnipeg that the human race stands on the precipice of self-immolation due to lack of sustainable energy. For one, the entire "fossil" fuel theory has its serious detractors, and the idea of abiotic oil is becoming more vand more plausible. As well, the Food or Fuel? page does an outstanding job of debunking a common unfounded fear surrounding the production of alternative biofuels. What surprises me is the author(s) make no mention of the fact that there are numerous forms of vegetation, not used for human consumption, from which ethanol can be gleaned. That all said, there was one quote in particular that is almost spot-on in my view:

"People starve because they're victims of an inequitable economic system, not because they're victims of scarcity and overpopulation."

I say "almost," because although the statement on its face can be true, we need to define just which economic systems constitute "inequity." Judging by what follows on the webpage, it seems that capitalism and wealth accumulation are under fire. Were communism, socialism, and fascism positioned so, I would raise no argument. Such systems do induce poverty and starvation. To make the statement whole, I would substitute "political" for "economic." That's infinitely more accurate.

The articles on bicycles all made me think of Cuba shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Castro traded boatloads of sugar to China in exchange for boatloads of bikes as at the time, Cuba had no hard capital to pay for petroleum fuel. Even the Cuban army paraded on holidays riding bicycles for a couple of years until Fidel was forced to introduce some minimal free-market reforms to prevent Cuba's economy from complete dissolution and widespread utter famine. More evidence of the ill effects Marxism imposes on those people imprisoned by it.
However, these Ciclovias are not bad ideas in and of themselves -- I would just naturally be very leery about allowing them to become government-sponsored or managed events which seems to be the direction things are headed in. Very bad idea, that.

I would say the same of the Motor Cities National Heritage Areas (a National Park Service power grab -- though at least shortly one may carry firearms on NPS land, subject only to state laws, thanks in no small part to the fine freedom-loving folks at Gun Owners of America who fought for eight years to accomplish this. American automotive heritage is fine. I just don't need or want a government "preserving" or "commemorating" it for me.

Another government endeavor that at least looks interesting, however, is the Sharon Visitors Center. Indeed, what an odd combination -- ecological consciousness coupled with a memorial to the Vietnam Conflict. In fact, I find the layout of the rest area at Sharon so intriguing, that I think it may find its way into some of my fiction at no distant day. And in real life, it's a must visit for later this summer.

Speaking of fiction, I hope by tomorrow to post a piece of short fiction I wrote while thinking about all of this. Some of you have actually requested another tale from me. I don't want to give it away, of course, but all the action takes place in a car, and I may include it in a short story collection (which will only come out after my next two or three projects are finished, so please don't poise yourself to buy it just yet) tentatively titled, Alex R. Knight III's Spooky Seventies. At any rate, it's called "Fire Poker," and is not for the easily offended...nor for the squeamish. When I post it, it will be without further adieu. Forewarned is forearmed, and now, hopefully, you're both.