Steer the car, Honey!

The other night (Friday, January 20, 2012) the ABC-TV Evening-News did a report on three city mayors complaining about our nation’s roads.
All I remember is Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
ABC went bonkers about the joy of driving.
There was Dinah Shore singing “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet” in her famous YouTube clip.

(The ’53 Chevy was a turkey.)
Next was a chrome-laden ’58 Oldsmobile four-door hardtop majestically cruising the Interstate.
Next was a baby-blue ’60 Corvette passing close underneath the photographer in the bed of a pickup.
Yes, driving was a joy back then.

Photo by BobbaLew.

The Wagon.

I remember cruising the highways of northern Delaware in my parents’ ’57 Chevrolet Power-Pak stationwagon.
I thought the world of that car; even paraded it as my own.
But back then gasoline didn’t cost almost $4 per gallon, and there weren’t so many cars fouling the atmosphere.
You could cruise the highway in a glittering land-barge without feeling guilty.
The mayors decried the dreadful condition of American highways, the potholes and crumbling bridges.
That they even rate lower than Malaysia.
The government seems to be posturing instead of getting things done.
The report ended with a girl driving a red convertible, top-down.
The girl threw her hands in the air, no longer steering the car.
An iconic image, freedom of the highway.
But the car started wandering left — it drifted across the double-yellow.
“Steer the car,” I shouted.
Reality impinges.