Christine: Our cars have a soul…

I wasn’t quite old enough to drive when Stephen King/ John Carpenter’s Christine came out in 1983, but I could really relate to the nerdy protagonist Arnie, and the special special bond with his 1958 Plymouth Fury. As I kid in the 1980s, I was a nerd too – A car nerd way, way more into 50s era American cars than the modern crap parked on the streets of my neighborhood. Every Sunday, I would grab the classified section of the newspaper (remember those?), and turn to the classic cars for sale. When I found something interesting like a ’55 Chrysler New Yorker hardtop or a ’59 Mercury Monterey listed, I would circle it and then look the model up in Tad Burness’ American Car Spotter’s Guide. I was indeed a hopeless nerd, but someday I would drive a cool old sled to school, maybe even one that was slightly evil. Something about the cars of this atomic era had energy, emotion, passion. It’s like they were indeed alive. The way an old car interior smells, the burble of a early V8 exhaust, and the warm hum of a tube radio… It’s just magic. You gotta respect that, love that. Arnie did.