The week the first issue of GSM was released, I joined a group of like minded gear heads for a traditional Thursday night gathering that’s been taking place since the late 1970’s. One fun detail about this group is that each week they convene at a different garage, be it private or commercial, spicing up the mix, and creating a sense of newness. I’ve been tagging along with them for about 14 years now, and have rarely had a dull moment. There is no particular car this group celebrates, so conversations have a habit of stringing from Rolls-Royce to Ford to Sherman Tanks to tools to pets to garages to just about anything under the sun. It’s a way to unplug, recharge, and slow down from a hectic week. In short it’s weekly bliss.

During this night of car camaraderie, I listened to a trio of chaps several years my senior, discuss how far the garage has evolved since their earlier days. As a student of all things automotive, especially the garage, I tuned in as acutely as possible, careful not to sway their attention. They told stories of dirt floors, creaky doors, wood frame construction that easily swayed with a stiff wind, and how essentially, cars wore the garages because early structures were so small. One of the men actually described a garage in his native Pasadena that he recalled being home to an early-1930s Cadillac, which he swore was a V-16 model, “just like Al Capone drove,” that was just about as large as the garage. There was but a couple of inches between the car and the door jamb, and it actually stuck its rear end through the double doors so that they couldn’t close. Whether or not the tale was completely true, will never be proven, and who cares. Sometimes, stories are worth the bend of legitimacy, and this one truly struck a chord as I could easily picture the scene. A simple wood structure with an “A” frame roof and two large wooden doors that swing open, as opposed to most modern doors which roll up into the roof space, and this Cadillac of legends shoved like a size 13 shoe in a size 8 box.

The gentleman continued on about how he’d recently driven past that house, and that the garage was still standing, but the Cadillac was long gone, and how they don’t build them like they used to. To my surprise, the conversation didn’t go the way I expected, but rather the gentlemen began praising new design and construction methods. I learned that the garage we were visiting was a newer structure, designed and built in the mid-1990’s. They commented on how the garage was more than capable of fully engulfing not just one V-16 Cadillac, but probably six of them, and that modern design and construction methods have truly come a long way, and of course, that led to how garages have been becoming a central focus in home building recently, and how much larger they’ve become over the years. This, in turn, led to discussions of how more families are enjoying time together in the largest room in the home, some even setting up entertainment centers, ping pong tables, shuffleboards, or just sitting areas to spend time with one another. In typical fashion, someone led the conversation down the path of how he remembered spending time with the family in front of a small fire, listening to the radio programs, and reveling in the latest mystery story on the air, and how those were some of the best times he recalls from his childhood.

It made me think, it’s not where you do what, or even so much what you do that counts with family and friends – it’s just being there. Spending time with the fam seems to have come a long way too, as it’s true that more families are decking out their garages as extensions to the living room. Someday, in the not so distant future, maybe someone will remember spending time with their family in the garage, with or without electronic influences such as television or radio, and smile at the memory of the days gone by.

Bliss comes in many shapes and sizes.

Enjoy!
Don Weberg
Editor-Publisher don@garagestylemagazine.com