More than junk, a pickers philosiphy

[Willowbilly3]

Part of the reason I pick is because I enjoy it whether I find anything or not. It's like a history lesson just being amongst old stuff and wondering what the family thought when the man brought home the car new and how it must have felt for them, stuff like that. More than half the time I spend on these visits is walking through the stuff with the old guy and hearing the stories that go with cars, parts. And isn't just patronizing them to get at their stuff, I truly enjoy it. When these old guys are gone, their storys are gone, never to be heard again. It's the history of the car culture, part of what car guys like me are about. I make meeting people, interacting and getting to know them my main focus. This makes every pick a successful outing whether I find something or not.
Part of the reason I can get along without much capitol is because I never worry about beating everyone else to the yard sale or worry about something I might be missing out on. I'm laid back and don't worry much if a deal slides away or if I could have got there before some one else. There is way more stuff out there than I could ever drag home in 100 years. Some of it just needs to stay where it's at for another generation to find and enjoy, my quest isn't to pick the country clean and leave a barren wasteland for future generations.
We played in those old cars when we were kids, used our imaginations and pretended scenarios. Everytime we strip another old car or truck from the countryside, we've deprived some kid of ever being able to do that, just so we can make a buck. Kids just like yours and mine. Nobody will ever go by and get a cool picture or be able to enjoy the veritable museum of the history left us in these relics. To wonder who the family was and try to visualize their story, visualize the little boy that got to go to town with his dad in that truck and have a cold soda pop at the feed store. All of this stuff is part of the bigger picture for me and I often walk through stuff just enjoying it where it sits and don't even try to see what they want for it. Sure I take some too but I leave a lot more than I bring home.
So for you guys who get their undies in a wad because some old geezer is letting a car rot down and won't sell, just remember he gets to look at it every day and all there will be left if he sells it is a hole and a memory.

 

[AZRodDave]

Right on! I would have to agree that meeting folks and sharing stories and checking out what others are doing is at least half the fun! Good post.

 

[Neverdone]

That's pretty deep bud....

Every time I see something sitting I wonder whats the story with it. Where did it come from/why is it there? I some times have a hard time cutting things up because at one point some one loved it. That is part of the reason my Jetta is still sitting in a beat up pile. I loved that car. I recently bought a new to me truck, but I still drive my old one and use it more than the newer one. I love that truck. I have so many memories in that and when it is gone so are they. I get excited walking around some one elses collection and even if they won't let it go I know there is a reason. I tired several times to get my hands on this old javelin that was sitting in a barn with the barn falling down on it. Every time I stopped the old guy just got madder and madder at me, I know it must have meant something to him. Maybe it was his kids, maybe it was a memory of better times for him. Who knows.

But yes, AMEN to you sir, if people go around and try to scoop up all the goodies there soon will be nothing left for people to see.

 

[CR55]

Excellent take on picking! I can relate about sitting in cars when I was a kid. There was an old Hudson Hornet in a field and we played in that car more times than I can remember. Also played in a Renault someone left sitting in a field next to a buddies house. We used to push that car up the hill just so we could "drive" it! Did that more times than I can count!...But it does kinda make me sad when I see an old classic just sitting and rotting away. I know you can't save em all, but....

 

[smallfoot]

Outstanding post Willowbilly3! You have brought up a 2 sided coin issue also. I've always been the same way. The oldtimers all have stories, some good, some bad...all interesting!
If more people were like you they would do better deals for everybody involved. To account for the "other side" I'll relate a personal story. Years ago after I retired. I found it difficult to make ends meet financially and had to let years and years of memories slip from me. The first Harley I built from scratch was a 59 Panhead. I loved that scoot. Because I was in dire need, I had to do something and it was one thing that would allow me out of the hole I was in. I had a long time friend that always showed interest in owning it thru the years. Instead of listing it in the want ads, I offered it to him. Didn't try to get what I thought it was really worth. Made him a deal of a lifetime with some restrictions because he was a friend. I told him I'd let him have it with the agreement that if he ever had to let it go, I would get first refusal. He bought it. Drove from Ohio to Florida to pick it up and was excited to get it. It chopped my heart up to see it leave here, but I kept thinking I would some day own it again. He took it home, made changes to it to make it "his" and kept the parts with it that I had built it with as we agreed. Not long ago, my situation changed. Finances got better than ever and now I had the means to get the pan back if I got the chance. I didn't go to him and beg for it, but waited thinking it would come if it was to be. I heard thru the grapevine that he had sold it to one of the groups that did builds for tv features...some of me died inside when I heard that. I didn't rag him. In fact I didn't mention it at all. Some months ago I got a call from him to wish me a happy birthday and I've not been really happy about the Hell I rained on him that day. I felt bad about it but you just can't "un-say" things. Not once did I hear that he might have needed money. Not once did I hear he'd sell it. And not once will I probably hear from him again...

 

[junker39]

Good thinking Willowbilly3. There's an older guy,(70s), around here that I gave some scrap metal to, the other day. When he came to get it, he just couldn't quit asking things about my Ghia. He finally said that he'd done a lot of hot rodding when he was growing up out in California. Built them out of what he had on hand. Go out, tear it up, build another. I had no idea the guy was a car guy. You just never know until the time is right. My Dad can still come up with some good car stories from the 30s and 40s. And boat stories. And smallfoot, I know what you're saying. I had a '73 Roadrunner when I left the Navy in '79. I got out of work and sold it for nothing to a guy I knew. With the option to buy it back if he ever wanted to get rid of it. Well, a year or so later, I had some cash so I figured I'd go make him an offer. Pulled into his driveway and NO Roadrunner. He came out and said his light bill was overdue and he'd just sold it to the local junkyard. I run over to the junkyard and there was my Roadrunner. Second one from the bottom, about six inches thick, on a flatbed, with about ten other smashed cars. I was sick. Not really P.O.d. Just sick. I have never sold anything since that I didn't just finally say good-bye to. That's all.

 

[earthman]

I believe you might have a book in you WB. That was a nice piece of reading.

 

[Willowbilly3]

Smallfoot, I had kind of a similar experience. I had a dufus pothead friend come over and raid my harley parts. I let him pick some nice stuff like rigid rear fender ect because he was trying to get his bike together. I let him trade me junk like old king and queen seats and cast off road rashed chopper parts. Then I'm at a swap meet and I see him driving in with a load of parts and some builder loping along side his pickup and buying all the good parts he had just got from me a few weeks earlier. He also bilked me out of a car at the same time. He claimed he needed a car for his just divorced wife so he could get his 427 Impala back from her so I gave him a nice 73 Bonneville and the title and he was supposed to have a Harley 4 speed tranny to trade me. I went to his house and he was gone, he sold the Bonneville, bought a bag of weed and took his new girlfriend on a week long vacation. All I ever got was an empty tranny case with the bottom broke out of it.
But overall, most of my trading experiences have been great. I give away a lot of parts to guys trying to build ratrods and never expect anything back. And most of that good will always comes back full circle, sooner or later. And maybe not from the very person you help but just from good "karma"

 

[Neverdone]

And that is why most of the time I don't like to get rid of or give stuff away.....

 

[smallfoot]

Sorry, I didn't mean to rant on like that but just to bring up some reason to why some people get mad when somebody wants to buy or trade parts they don't really want to get rid of. I still believe in the golden rule and karma...
Great post WB!

 

[Willowbilly3]

Sorry, I didn't mean to rant on like that but just to bring up some reason to why some people get mad when somebody wants to buy or trade parts they don't really want to get rid of. I still believe in the golden rule and karma...
Great post WB!

Me too. I never let the messed up people dictate my path or gave them the power over my peace.

 

[Neto]

I can identify with the sentiments. People who don't understand wonder why you act like a car, which admitedly is an inanimate piece of machinery, is "a part of the family". We had a 93 Town & Country minivan while our kids were small, and I couldn't look at that car w/o hearing hours of "Oddessy" tapes playing in my head. (It was a Christian radio story program done by Focus on the Family.) And GT and the Halo Express Bible verse songs. But it was really about being in that small space with my family, and those memories of things that will never be again. (Not that I resent that my kids are grown up, adults, but there is still that wistfulness about those times.)

Anyway, when the 93 T & C reached its 'end of life', I could not bear to part with it. (Which my wife couldn't understand.) I kept it till no one else would have even wanted it anymore, then I cut it all up & scrapped it myself, so that no one else would do it. I kept nameplates & the hood ornament, the body plate, the VIN plate, and leather from the interior (I hope to make a cap out of that, or something else sort of personal).