Car Culture
Do you remember American Graffiti with Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfus and Harrison Ford? It was 29-year-old George Lucas’ breakout directorial and screenwriting debut. It was set in 1962 Modesto, California. That feels perfectly normal and to be expected for this American coming-of-age classic, except that it was only filmed a decade after the time it was set, which makes me scratch my head about how Lucas and all of us could get so nostalgic about something so chronologically nearby. Can we feel that something that happened in 2009 is worthy of a nostalgic retrospective? I find that hard to fathom, but maybe there was simply a greater change from the 60’s to the 70’s than we imagine. I remember going to see the movie when it came out and feeling so distant from that era. Seeing Dreyfus with his rolled up jeans and Harrison Ford with a pack of cigarettes in the rolled up sleeve of his t-shirt seemed anachronistic at the time. Knowing the movie career trajectories of Dreyfus, Ford and Howard, not to mention Lucas, and all the impact those people have had on our cultural psyche makes the wonder all the more so.
The thing I remember most about the movie (not surprisingly) is the California Central Valley car culture depicted by the cruising and all the related shenanigans conducted by graduating high school seniors as they headed off to college and/or their lives. The car in American and especially Californian culture has played a central role for a century. At the 1964 Worlds’ Fair in NYC, everything seemed to revolve around the car. As goes General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, so goes the nation. It was more than an economic short-hand expression. The auto industry vied with television for which had the most impact on young people’s lives in the 1960’s and visions of the future.
We rode through the future in convertible Mustangs in the Ford pavilion. And there and in the GM exhibit we saw flying cars by 2000 or sooner. I am always interested to note that we were way off on predicting our automotive future. We captured some of the style elements, but the underlying technology alluded us, maybe because we didn’t see the hydrocarbon monster coming at us, first in oil shortages in the 70’s and then ultimately in the emissions tragedy of the present. The whole smog thing in California (especially L.A.) should have tipped us off, but not so much as was needed. We also didn’t pay enough attention to the laws of aeronautics. I guess we assumed we would discover ways around the limitations of gravity and physics, but again, not so much. We’re getting closer thanks to drone development. I see they just had a drone deliver a kidney for transplant via a drone flight over a 2.8 mile urban stretch. Necessity truly is the mother of invention, and I guess that means we haven’t really needed flying cars just yet.
I have owned a Tesla X for two years now. It’s been more an occasional toy so far and has only 5,000 miles on it. That should change now with my taking up residence. I love the way the car drives and I love all the digital technology in the user interface. I use only bits and pieces of the autonomous driving capability. I’m used to my Mercedes Distronic that keeps speed, distance between vehicles and general lane-keeping, so I use those features in the Tesla, but hands-free is a bridge too far for me with any degree of comfort. I always thought self-driving cars would need metal guides buried in the road. Who knew big data would be the preferred solution with sensors all-around. I will use my Tesla locally (range is 230 miles unless I upgrade for the newer 325 mile versions, which seems like a silly extravagance given my low mileage to date). I will use it for all our local driving and use the Mercedes for anything longer distance.
I have never been very much of a car guy. I’m a motorcycle guy who has always thought of cars as transportation. The Tesla was my first unnecessary car purchase and I did it less for the joy of driving than to enter the eco-friendly world of electric vehicles. It was a nod to the anticipated California lifestyle that is now upon me. However, driving the Tesla has given me a new appreciation for the pleasure of car driving and I must admit I find it very invigorating to drive. I would be happier with more range, but I think that for now I will consider it my cost of early adoption.
We often say that Escondido is the land of the pick-up truck. This town is less like San Diego and more like American Grafitti’s Modesto. It feels like a combination of a working/middle class community with a ranching side to it from the very nearby Valley Center, through which we travel whenever we ride out towards the hills or desert. The thing that makes this town feel most like the California of George Lucas’ youth is that every Friday night in the summer, the main drag in town, Grand Avenue, turns into a festival of California car culture called Cruisin’ on Grand. It’s a place for car enthusiasts (particularly hot rod fans) to gather and gawk at their cream polished beauties. The fins alone are worth the trip to Grand Avenue. Grand is your typical Main Street USA. There are banks and bistros, barbershops and beauty parlors. All along the street, interspersed between the flowerbeds and the Detroit heavy metal from the years gone by are every manor of Southern Californian you can imagine. The diversity of Southern California is one of the things that drew us to the area. Today we drove through Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar and I was reminded of how happy I am to be living in Escondido. I prefer the parade of low-riders on Grand to the parade of Bentleys and Mercedes G-Wagons (about thrice the price of my 450 GLS).
I remember about twenty years ago when I was contemplating a move to L.A., I was being taken around to look at homes by a broker who explained to me that I would have to buy either a big Lexus, Mercedes or BMW if I wanted to fit in. I thought he was kidding, but he was dead serious. People out here define themselves both by where they live and what the drive. I’m starting to pay more attention to what we drive, mostly because we live on a hill, several miles away from civilization. And then there’s the issue of the high price of gas out here (due mostly to the emission standards of our “green” state) and all the money I’ve poured into solar electric generation and my Tesla high-speed recharger. The point is, in NYC, it’s all Uber, Lyft and Curb, but out here in the land of sunshine, I may not be ready to say I am what I drive, but I also figure I best not completely ignore the car culture.