On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Eric Mumford wrote:
> I was fuming and absolutely beside myself by this point, but I wore a
> cool face and I didn't interrupt him. I was so upset that I didn't know
> what to say. How could I explain my love for the car to a man that
> clearly had no empathy for what the MG means to me? All my dad sees are
> dollar figures washing down the road.
Eric,
I have been in your situation. I lived with my parents until I went to
grad school when I was 23. When I had my first car (Fiat X 1/9) and spent
all summer fixing it up, doing a lot of body work, burning out my dad's
drill motor and finally getting the car painted, my dad was proud of me, I
think, that I could do all these things. Six months later I bought my
first Midget (74) and after that, always had two or three (once 4) cars at
my parents house. Sometimes my dad would get pissed and I had to park
some
cars at the university dorm parking lot, because he told me I couldn't
have more than 2 cars at our house.
Once, though, I bought an MGA for $1500, got it running but found it to be
a total rust bucket and realized I would have to sell it. My mom loved
the car ("No, THAT'S a sports car") and even my dad asked me if I couldn't
restore it.
It took me until I was 25 (and 20 cars down the road) to realize that I
felt much better about having ONE car and giving it my undivided
attention, spending all my money on it and getting it into really good
shape then giving in to temptations from 60's american
sedans/convertibles, italian midengine targas, and custom motorcycles with
flame jobs. I am mentioning this to you so that you might consider
selling the other LBC, focus on the machine at hand and appease your
parents as well.
You can also tell them that it will be back together soon, and pretend
like it will never need any work done to it again, since everything is new
now, right? It will also actually increase in value, unlike anything else
you could buy...
> I find incredible entertainment how many of you have more than one LBC
> (as do I.) My parents are aghast that I have two LBC's. A financial
> nightmare. I'm not making sense. I must be crazy to be buying these
> cars. Where have they gone wrong, they ask themselves.
>
> I'm so jealous of you guys (and girls) who have "grown up" and still
> have such a spirited life that includes your MG hobby. I am the only
> one of my breed, I think. I'm one of YOU, but stuck in a 22-year-old
> college student's body (which basically means I can do engine swaps on
> my own, but that's about it.) I'm trying to find an electrical
> engineering career (that's my major) but the only classes I do well in
> are Philosophy. I find more solace and reward in working on my Midget
> (even though it hasn't run for nearly half a year now) than I do in
> anything else. My classes bore me to tears and if I hadn't found the
> auto shop on campus and joined I don't know what I'd do.
I wish we had had an auto shop on campus! That would have seriously
distracted me from school work as well.
Go for that engineering career! Imagine the money you will make!
Jaguar E-type, Lotus Super 7, Sunbeam Tiger....
Motivated yet?
Ulix __/__,__
.......................................................... (_o____o_)....
'67 Sprite
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