I really don't like cars, despite having one. It's simply a way of getting around when I can't take the bus or train. Furthest I go in a car is just over 100 miles perhaps twice a year. Today, I've been on the train, then I drove 1 mile to the supermarket. If it's not going to be a big shop, I can take a bus.
I really dislike the whole hot rod thing but I'm a fan of hot rod music.
I will have a go at the books.
Did Speedy ever drive the Arrow Car? Batgirl had her motorbike. Did Star Spangled Kid ever get behind the wheel? Could be good fun finding out.
I don't dislike cars, per se, but I don't like dealing with my own, at my age, garaging, parking, paying annual taxes and fees, insurance, for just driving a few hundred km a year. Other than my 2 long-distance fast walking trips per day, especially if I need to go more than 3 miles each way, or need to carry a lot of bulk or weight, I travel by bicycling on almost all local trips, and once in a while, take a tram, bus, or local train. Travelling within Europe from country-to-country, I take trains, in Canada and USA my relatives drive me, or I borrow their car for short trips, or take a bus or local train, bicycle(unless icy) or ski in Winnipeg, but won't ride a bicycle in US cities.
I DID drive a LOT of miles when I was an environmental assessor and development economist for First Nations and Native American tribes in Western Canada and Western USA, and also when working on UN projects in Asia and Africa. I got 275,000 miles on my Subaru 4-Wheel Drive wagon, which could drive in a metre high of snow, WITHOUT using tire chains. I did a lot of driving in mountainous areas. Currently I have a 2012 compact Nissan Sedan; and in 15 years, I have only put 34,000 km on it. I hardly use it, at all. And it's VERY expensive. But I like the convenience of being able to use it to go to places which require many public transit changes, and many hours to get to.
I still have bicycles in The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Canada, and even in USA(though I don't use that one). For many, many years, I regularly drove very long distances on my bicycle (from Den Haag to Amsterdam 70+ km round trip; from Nord Sjaeland to Kopenhagen, 90 km round trip; and 60 km from one end of The Munich Metro Area to the other, and 60 Km from the eastern rural area near Bremen (Germany) to visit friends in Oldenburg. But, I haven't cycled anywhere near that far away since The Covid Pandemic started in early 2020. Now, I only cycle up to about 5 miles away, and don't carry so much weight in my "saddlebags" as I did before 5 years ago.
I took a glance at the "Hot Rod" comics. I find it interesting that they have so much practical instruction for the novice interested in cars, explaining how they work, and how to maintain them, just like an industry magazine. I never paid much attention to this genre of US comic books when flipping through stacks of 2nd hand US comics. I wonder if a LOT of late teenage boys in USA and Canada (and maybe Australia) where distances are longer, and owning a car could, in many cases, would be much more necessary than in urban Europe, and in Britain, were helped by such comic books to get interested in buying their own "jalopy" (old junk heap), and fixing it up for being able to afford their first owned car, or got interested in race driving, from reading these stories. Most of the other teenaged boys I knew didn't own their own cars until after high school, and those who did, or became interested in becoming an auto mechanic, had mechanically knowledgeable and competent fathers, who worked on servicing and maintaining their own cars, or they took "auto shop" courses in high school, so they could work on their own cars. My father helped me buy my own first car when I started university, by getting a "junker" (car abandoned after a major accident), and paying a mechanic put a refurbished engine in it. My father knew nothing about auto mechanics, so, neither did I. I got basic auto hand tools, and learned how to change the oil in my car, and do a few basic adjustments, and install new filters, but that was the extent of it. Not being mechanically inclined, I left the crucial work to the experts, rather than risk doing something wrong that could make the car perform less than its best, which would cost more money in the long run, or could be dangerous in some cases.
I must add, that auto racing never appealed to me as a driver, or a spectator. But, I can see how these inexpensive 10 cent comic books might spark the first interest of a young teen boy (and maybe the odd girl) to become interested in auto mechanics or, even auto racing. And, the history of automobiles interests me as a historian. So, I look forward to reading that book, as well.
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Topic: Reading Group # 368 Drive! (Read 303 times)
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