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Backseat Driver: I write love stories

If you want to be happy, collect something.

I was reminded of this during a visit the other day to Ray Chevalier who lives in Glocester. Photographer Steve Szydlowski and I went to interview him about his two outstanding Ford Falcons.

Mr. Chevalier has a blue 1963-1/2 Ford Falcon Futura Hardtop and a red 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero which is truly a champion, having won a number of awards from the prestigious Antique Automobile Club of America.

But the Ranchero is a recent addition. He has had the Futura, which used to belong to his mother-in-law, for years, and the rear wall of his garage is lined with trophies he has won with the car - more than he can count, although he said his granddaughter claims there are 250. The award for the Ranchero were in the house.

Point is, Mr. Chevalier seems a happy man. “It’s what I do,” he said of his hobby. “Others play golf, I do this.”

It reminded me of the Rhode Island Hot Wheels Club expo that I wrote about last year. My interest in the assignment was spurred when I discovered during my research that a Hot Wheels purple VW bus with a yellow plastic surfboard – the Beach Bomb – had sold at auction for $72,000.

And when I got to the show, I was really impressed by everyone's enthusiasm. Grown men collecting toy cars? Yes, and happy men too.

It got me to thinking that many a psychotherapist’s couch could be vacated by patients who instead get out of themselves by taking up a hobby like collecting. Collecting anything. I write about people who collect cars, big and small, old and new, expensive and cheap. And they are for the most part very happy people.

Indeed, I am often asked about the best cars on the market for this-and-that budget, and while I have some knowledge of the car business, I often reply by saying that my knowledge is limited because I don’t so much write about cars as I write about the people who own them.

In short, I write love stories.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:58 AM to commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: Have gas prices peaked?

I have no idea.

Gas prices traditionally spike upward ahead of the summer driving season as refineries shift their production runs from heating oil to gasoline, and level off after the Memorial Day weekend.

In addition, the recent run-up in prices to more than $4.00 a gallon has forced people to cut back, with overall driving down this past weekend for the first time in years.

And crude oil prices have fallen off from last week’s highs of $135 a barrel to the mid-$120s, although they are edging back up today.

But the drop may have wrung some of the speculative dollars out of the price, although no one knows what percentage of the run-up is due to speculation.

As to whether gas prices have peaked, maybe someone will emerge at the end of the year having made millions/billions of dollars by betting the right way – just as hedge fund manager John Paulson made a whopping $3.7 billion last year by betting subprime mortgage securities would fail.

But the operative word is betting, and for all the billions Paulson made, there were plenty of ‘smart’ losers who bet the other way. Remember all the billion-dollar write-offs at the beginning of the year?

Personally, I think high gas prices are here to stay. Certainly that’s the way I would bet if I could afford to buy a new car!

But what do I know?

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:06 AM to commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

$4 gas means a drive to the park costs more than a sandwich

PROVIDENCE — Warren Graves allows that his Ford Focus gets good mileage — about 31 miles a gallon — but he grimaced into the setting sun last night as he pumped $20 worth at a Hess gasoline station in the city’s Jewelry District, according to The Providence Journal.

“Look at that,” said Graves, nodding toward the reading on the pump, which showed that he got a hair more than 5 regular gallons for his $20, which cost him $3.94 per gallon.

“It’s too much money, I know that,” said Graves. “But I don’t have much choice, I drive to Boston every day.”

As regular gas hovered at $4 per gallon yesterday, motorists in Southeastern New England tightened their belts another notch, vowing to take public transportation more, ride bicycles, pare down vacation plans and grouse a bit about the soaring cost of fuel for cars, trucks and SUVs.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:04 AM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0