ride back home yesterday, old black man driving an older cadillac eldorado on the highway. not in the best of condition, faded red, some of the seams a bit pried apart. those things get what, 10-15 miles per gallon? just getting into the fours and seven dollars on the gallon predicated by decade’s end, how is this thing even on the road to begin with?
how does an object accrue value in a culture?
the stereotype: blacks and big old cadillacs. the man was well into his fifties, fairly fit, thin with the windows rolled down. the car, not well maintained, not necessarily a status symbol. not new and not made to look shiny. so something else, a keepsake. keepsake of what?
when that model was released, it had to be what, late sixties/early seventies, which puts the driver just being born, maybe pre-teen. he might have seen it, but never drove it. typical ownership of that car, up until the gas crisis of the mid-late seventies, maybe ten years. again, puts the driver anywhere from pre-teen to teens, if his father owned one.
and what did his father do that he would need a big ole cadillac to redeem him? what kind of work was available for blacks during that time? custodians, janitors, etc? would explain the caddy, the need to put your sweat into something big and bold and beautiful.
or did someone he admire own such a car? did his friend lend him the car for a date?
on and on it went like this, until the potato was asleep and the banana too and even the wife passed out to the drone of my meanderings.