When a man loves a woman, he may buy her flowers or he may take her out to dinner. He does something to show his love and devotion. The feeling love was the basis of our conversation in my Uncle’s garage last night. He’s a single man in his mid-fifties and as happy as could be. His classic Chevy trucks are still to this day, his love and devotion. He pours his time, money, and sweat into his trucks.
I’m partial to women, and my Toyota Tacoma, but I definitely understand his passion for his vehicles. I personally feel the same way towards music. There are so many feelings that can come out of any one song, and they have an amazing way of bringing back to a moment of time in your life, connecting songs to actual experiences.
My uncle feels like that with his vehicles. He threw his mechanics gloves on and said “It’s the same thing, I hop in the seat of this thing and it brings me right back to the days of driving through the canyon to Malibu,” said with a smile.
So he started talking about some singers and groups that he used to listen to on his vinyl record player, and most were classic rhythm and blues acts. The Drifters, The Rondelles, later on with the Beach Boys, etc.
I feel like a lot has been lost with music today and there’s a reason that so many of us still fall back on our favorite classic acts. Is it because it’s nostalgic when we listen to them, just like it was for my uncle when he sat down in the seat of his truck? Maybe.
The quality seems so diluted now and recycled like last decade’s fashion. It make me really cherish connections to things and experiences that are original. Nat King Cold and Anita Baker, those are two huge voices in our history, have influenced countless aspiring singers and will continue to do so into the future.
My Uncle reminded me, while under his truck on a creeper fixing his brakes, “new” means “recycled” many times. Even the can of beer that you are drinking has been used before. It’s our connection to our own history that we can’t escape. Think about the many ways that we can travel nowadays. The options used to be far less. So as convenience keeps increasing as well as options, the idea of something original and un-recycled seems like a pretty far-fetched idea.
Creativity has always been the creative flame for any originality. You have to dig pretty deep to find it but it will always exist.
My Uncle applied his fix-it knowledge while wearing Mechanix Wear Gloves and fixing his Brakes.
