Important blog on Ford Collection

[denis4x4]

https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...comments-block

Take the time to read all of the comments as they're really more relevant than the story itself

[31 Model A]

Interesting read, thanks for posting. I've come to the conclusion that our hobby/enthusiasm is to be enjoyed alone and with other like minded people. Sure some of the younger people are interested but two things come to mind, one is the ratio of those that do and that don't and never will. The latter out numbers the those that do and, interests change as one gets older. Either one has a place in their mind for nostalgia or they don't.

Since we can't take our As with us, may we find a family member/buyer with the same interests in fun and preservation as we did. I have no one that would be interested for Sarah in my Will so it will be a buyer for me 'BEFORE' I kick the bucket.

Not just auto museums are closing or having a hard time, many other types are also and our newest generation, the Millennials have a whole new way of thinking about everything.

Just my 2 cents.............

[Dick Steinkamp]

Originally Posted by 31 Model A

...the Millennials have a whole new way of thinking about everything.

As did we when we were that age.

There are lots of exceptions of course, but I believe when we were young, most of us old farts didn't have the same interests as our parents and grand parents. We were more involved in what was happening NOW rather than what was happening back when they were our age. Tough to fault kids of today for thinking and doing the same as we did.

[Indiana A. Lover]

The young people ,in my part of the midwest could give a hoot about old cars, I believe my generation 66 years old, is the last of Restorers. Young people around here are not interested period!Sure hate to see it go!!

[31 Model A]

Originally Posted by Dick Steinkamp

As did we when we were that age.

There are lots of exceptions of course, but I believe when we were young, most of us old farts didn't have the same interests as our parents and grand parents. We were more involved in what was happening NOW rather than what was happening back when they were our age. Tough to fault kids of today for thinking and doing the same as we did.

Hope you're not including me in "WE" because my first car was a 49 Ford Sedan, barn find, second car was a 54 Chevy sedan that I had to pay back, both times to my parents because I didn't have enough money to pay for my school clothes and a car and that's no feckin BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOOTNOTE: my comment was also based on other comments and magazine articles about Millennials, one fact, so many do not drive and have no intentions on driving, same goes for banks. They have a whole new way of thinking.

[31 Model A]

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I've tried to be optimistic all my life but as times change, it get harder as ya get older.

So many have put so much time, money and interest I into what we do, it's sad that the possibility of all that coming to an end beside death is scary. Enjoy it all as often as you can. It's a great hobby, wish I had got further into it earlier in life but I do know, I have more time to enjoy it now than the years before.

Private museums are great but costly when there are no other means to keep them going when the place relies solely on an entrance fee. It will reach a point people will not pay the price.

[700rpm]

I think there are many factors that contribute to or detract from our hobby. One is certainly the declining numbers in our age group. I'm 71, but many in my club are older. Growing up, I started helping my dad with mechanical things at about age 10, because he was mechanically skilled; I learned a lot and my interest was encouraged and rewarded. My dad's car, which we worked on together, was until 1955 a Model A. My first car was a Model A, bought in 1961, which I still have. I had daughters, not sons, and they had zero interest in working on cars. Likewise now their husbands, because they came from professional families whose fathers did not work on cars. So, moving along the timeline, my daughters and their husbands had no mechanical experience to share with or pass on to my grandchildren. Only one grandson has any interest in my cars; he is twenty, in college, but has no mechanical skills, interest, or ability, let alone tools. I think what I have described here may be true for a lot of people.

Now, let's look at current vehicles, and then forward a bit. You cannot hardly find a car or even a truck that has a manual trans. And if you can, there is almost nothing in them that your average owner can fix if it goes sideways. Many people today not only don't know how to change their oil, they often don't even know they need to do that until their car tells them!

And looking not too far into the future, we will someday soon have self-driving cars, perhaps entirely in 20 years. Gasoline may become impossible to find, replaced by batteries, solar cells, or who knows what, so we might not even be able to drive our cars for lack of fuel, even if we are still alive in 2036. We are near the end of the automobile as we have known it, and maybe even the automobile as a primary means of transportation, perhaps even the end of the automobile era. One only has to try to get to the grocery store at 3:00 in the afternoon to realize there are too many cars on too few adequate streets, or to be stuck in a freeway traffic jam for two hours to realize this is unsustainable.

If nostalgia is a major factor, today’s kids are not likely to be nostalgic for their mode of transportation. We have increasingly become a disposable society with rapid change. New things come at us at a much faster pace and will continue to do so, and the current skill set is quickly made obsolete by new demands. We have moved away from the mechanical/industrial age and into the information/service/technology age. What we needed to know to get by 50 years ago is obsolete, and fast becoming lost knowledge. How many guys can pour babbitt? How many have the skills and facilities to paint their own car? How many even now have trouble just timing their Model A, a relatively simple article of maintenance, and who is going to teach them in 15 years?

Some life lessons for me to accept as I age are:
1) All things pass.
2) I am increasingly irrelevant and out of touch.
3) What I value is not necessarily what my grandchildren will value.
4) It all doesn’t much matter in the great scheme of things.
5) In a hundred years no one will know, remember, or care about our current little puddle of anxieties.

[2935ford]

Nothing is forever!

[C26Pinelake]

Originally Posted by 2935ford

Nothing is forever!

Except taxes and the fun you have driving your A! Wayne

[1930artdeco]

Thanks Ray for putting a damper on my day����. Unfortunately, I feel the same way. But I won't stop trying to get new people into the hobby.

Mike

[700rpm]

Originally Posted by 1930artdeco

Thanks Ray for putting a damper on my day����. Unfortunately, I feel the same way. But I won't stop trying to get new people into the hobby.

Mike

Sorry Mike. Nothing personal!

[updraught]

Putting a car in a museum is like putting a bird in a cage.

[ronn]

Ray, very well said. I completely agree and couldnt have said it half as well.

Not being pragmatic, just disclosing the facts.

[Stretch Cab]

Well looking on the bright side, maybe if I can live long enough, someday I will be able to buy a worthless 180A before it is scrapped for the price of the metal. Silver lining?

[dan]

Just to chime in from my current lurking in McPherson Ks...

There are young folks interested in old cars. I'm in classes every day with 20-year-olds who are going to school to learn restoration. Some are into 50's cars, but there are plenty who are into pre-war cars. And these are guys young enough that they don't remember a world without cell phones and the internet.

In addition, there's growing interest in and respect for preservation and restoration among these younger folks. You still see cars getting hot-rodded, but most of the kids I'm in school with see that kind of like us older guys--as a loss of a car that won't ever be what it was again. I overheard a 18-year-old say "that was a waste of a good car" when someone brought in a resto-mod Mercury.

Sure there are a lot of kids who are into social media and on-line videos. But I expect that there are enough who are still interested in old cars to keep the hobby going. And keep in mind that if the level of interest declines, prices will drop. Which could mean that some young guy who couldn't see dropping $15,000 on a Model A might change his mind if it was $8,000.

Don't lose hope. Or if you do, how about someone making me a deal on a 31 SW Fordor? :-)

[00fxd]

Originally Posted by 700rpm

Some life lessons for me to accept as I age are:
1) All things pass.
2) I am increasingly irrelevant and out of touch.
3) What I value is not necessarily what my grandchildren will value.
4) It all doesn’t much matter in the great scheme of things.
5) In a hundred years no one will know, remember, or care about our current little puddle of anxieties.

My sentiments exactly .....

[[email protected]]

I have attended many steam engine thrasherees over the years. Same deal with keeping this hobby viable. The expense, training, needing a steam license, and liability insurance is making it harder for these clubs. Years ago the high scrap metal prices took out a lot of these old steam engines. Close farm families are probably the key for keeping these engines and tractors going..

Also there are a lot of people in these hobbies that were skilled machinists. The young people now don't know what a Bridgeport machine is but can tell you all about 3D Printers...

[1930artdeco]

None taken Ray. A bright spot where I live though is the Gstsby picnic put on the Art Deco society of California. I am a taxi driver so I can so off Barb to people. While driving I talk about the car and try and impress on people how easy it is to take car of one. I keep trying and one day I will have success!

Mike

[harleynut]

After reading the article and the blogs I have to agree with most of the blogs. I have 3 As and do to my age, I'm trying to sell one of them with no luck at all. I've had it on this site and Craig's list and Hemming's. It's not a money thing. I'm just trying to get 50 cents on a dollar of what I got into it. All I got so far are Scammers, tire kickers and advertising outfits wanting to sell it for me. No, or very little interest in my neck of the woods.

[Mike V. Florida]

It's not just cars. Where there were orchards and nursery's, there now none. The family's don't seem to want to do the work.

You guys in Ct. know the story about the Danbury Fair. The old man dies and the family said we'll take the money.

I really don't know what my grand and great grand children will do, Will they gravitate towards the feeling of doing things with their hands whether, hobby or career or go for the money?