Living On…

Living On…

This is a strange post, but one I’ve been needing to write for a few months. It all started to come down about three months ago. I got an email from a young man in his 20’s whose father was a fairly active HAMBer in the early to mid 2000’s. With his permission, I’ve decided to post that email sans his and his father’s name. This is awkwardly personal, hence the censoring…

I didn’t grow up a car guy. My dad passed away when I was 14 years old in 2004. He was a car guy and I guess I knew him as well as any 14 year old really knows their dad. He went to my baseball games, he helped me in school, he did all of the things a good dad does. He didn’t push me into anything and I guess that’s why he never really pushed the car thing on me. He took me on rides in his roadster and helped me build models. He never made me do chores in the garage and never made me do anything car related that I didn’t want to do.

So, I grew up with a lose sense of what “hot rodding” is. And now that I’m older I realize that I really had a pretty lose sense of who my father really was as well. I knew him as a dad – not a buddy with common sensibilities. A few months ago, I begin to miss my dad all over again. I wanted to know him as a man. I wanted to know how he really was to his friends, etc…

My mom mentioned your website and on a whim I decided to check it out. It wasn’t long before I found my dad’s account. It’s changed everything. Reading his posts has been like a window into my father that I have never been able to look through. It’s the stupid stuff that is the most valuable to me. The way he posted a classified add. The way he asked a technical question and then thanked everyone for the answers. The way he joked with other members. It’s all so much.

I feel like that, in a way, I’ve been given an opportunity to get to know my dad as an adult. I realize it’s just a snap shot, but it’s the most valuable snap shop in the world. I feel like I’m learning and he is teaching.

I just wanted to write you and thank you for keeping these old posts around. They mean the world to me.

I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the historical significance of our archives. I’ve always felt that someday the posts of the HAMB past would be golden. Readers will be able to see how a guy started. How a guy made it big as a builder. How a guy acted and responded. How… You get the point.

Imagine if there were a HAMB in the 1940’s and 50’s. How interesting would the “every day” posts of a Harry Westergard be? How valuable would those be to a guy like me or you? Someday we will all cherish the regular old posts from a guy like Bob Bleed. I know this to be true.

However, I didn’t see this email coming and never thought about the significance of our archives on those terms – on personal terms. Since getting the email, I have been… It’s mind boggling.

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