sometime around two internets ago, one of the things that I liked to do the most online was to watch Murilee Martin’s junkyard finds. Through the inevitable entropy that happens to every vehicle, it’s nice to know that there is someone who appreciates them even in death.
Sure, the nearest car show will inevitably bring you a plethora of nice, clean, well-cared examples of the vehicles that you lusted over as a young person. Polished and kept to a shine that betrays their age. But more often than not, these shows are lacking on the mundane. The vehicles of the lumpenproletariat who are not celebrated or remembered as milestones. The Mark IV Toyota Supra will be cherished and remembered as long as there are people to do so. The plastic-bumpered Tercel EZ that shared showroom space with it, not as such.
Yet there’s enough people, dozens at least, that like to remember these cars as they were. The workhorses will inevitably carry more real memories to more people than the showponies. So when Murilee finds a 300,000 mile Cherokee, for example, it’s somehow more relatable. One gets to think about the stories that could’ve happened to the one-time owners of that car in a way that imagining oneself as the owner of a Lamborghini can’t
Unfortunately, findings, like this are going to be more than more uncommon as time goes along due to the simple nature of odometers. The little counter is gone and has been for quite some time. I’m not sure what the first car with a digital odometer was, but from it on the days of gawking at the giant number on the dashboard were counted. Pragmatically, it’s for the best. The new ones are better, safer, and much more difficult to temper with. And in the grand scheme of things not being able to see the mileage at which one vehicle died is a relatively unimportant concern; and yet for some of a particular disposition it’s going to make the world a little bit duller.
Fortunately, not all is lost. because while the odometers may be digital. Oil change stickers are still a thing. So there’s at least one redundancy as long as the owner has the car serviced in a place that uses them (or the foresight to use them on their own oil changes).
And because of the weird and wonderful world of the internet, enough people who like the ordinary have collected together to make things like The Festival of the Unexceptional, where they can, in boomer terms, “Look at cars the way they were”. No need to go to a junkyard or buy vintage photos. And on these ones, you get to be surrounded by a group of people that will share their enthusiasm and have a more nuanced nostalgia. One where everything was taken care of, but not too well.
