I was telling my Ethiopian friend who is young and doesn’t know our history, that once upon a time, we were definitely more of a car-oriented culture. Not just having cars but loving them almost as much as we would love a living thing. She just bought a newer car but is keeping her older Toyota because it was the first car she ever owned here in the States. It has sentimental value to her. But young men and young women years ago felt even a closer connection to their cars. They were distinguishable from each other. You could baby and doctor them when they were sick. They offered freedom from the prying eyes of adults. I wish we could go back to those days even though I was born a bit too late to be in the heyday. American Graffiti, to me, symbolizes that era perfectly.
Back to my Ethiopian friend, one time she told me that she loves older Jeeps and four wheel drive vehicles of that era because she remembers the Americans and other Westerners, I’m assuming aid workers, tooling around with ease around her country.
These days less young people have cars due to high cost relative to limited income plus, “there’s always Uber.”